A Bad Choice
by Dis Lexic
Summary: When I filled out a CYOA out of boredom, I never expected a ROB to take that as an invitation and drop me in it. Oh god, I really should have picked something that made me harder to kill! To make matters worse, I wasn't just dropped in, oh no, now I have the god damn Nazi's chasing me for my powers!
1. Chapter 1

A Bad Choice

When I filled out a CYOA out of boredom, I never expected a ROB to take that as an invitation and drop me in it. Oh god, I really should have picked something that made me harder to kill! To make matters worse, I wasn't just dropped in, oh no, now I have the god damn Nazi's chasing me for my powers!

 **Sigh, yes its and other CYOA, no I don't care that I'm going overboard on them. Its fun damn it! Anyway, this time there's no Servant involved and hes technically not as OP as some I created. WHatever, lets get started. Enjoy!**

Chapter 1

When I went to bed after staying up way to late working on a new story idea, I was expecting to wake up the next morning to the sound of my phone greeting me for another day at work. Instead, I was woken by the early morning light landing on my face and the fact my soft bed seemed to have turned into solid wood.

"What the...wuzgoinon?" I slurred as I opened my eyes, quickly throwing up my hand to stop the sunlight from burning my eyes out.

It took a moment to realize what was wrong with the image. My curtains were thick and I always closed them before I went to bed, so there was no way that sunlight should be getting into my room. I slowly lowered my hand and looked around the room, taking in the grimy walls that were covered in dark red stains, shattered furniture and the floor that had the rotten remains of a carpet that looked like it had been clawed to pieces. By claws that were strong enough to damage the hardwood floor.

"What the hel…" I started, before I suddenly realized that my voice sounded...odd.

I looked down and found that my voice wasn't the only thing that had changed. Instead of my thin body in nothing but the pants I went to sleep in, I found myself looking at a slightly chunky and much less mature body in pale blue PJs. As I did, a few locks of blonde hair fell in front of my eyes and I blinked as I realized that my hair was longer than it had been.

"Huh...thats interesting," I muttered as I examined my new hands, absently running a finger over where I'd had a small scar on the back of my left one, "What the hell is going on?"

A loud crunch from outside made me jump and look up, just in time to see a twisted monstrosity I could only refer to as a troll stump past the window. I quickly scrambled to my feet and darted to the window, peeking out and down onto the street below. Just one glance made me realize that I might be in trouble. The town I was in was a complete wreck, with not a single house intact, although plenty of them seemed to have been patched up with wood and colourful bits of cloth and were inhabited by all manner of bizarre creatures that looked like something straight out of a fairy tale for little kids. If said fairytale involved orgies, debauchery and horrific table manners as the goblins gorged themselves on all manner of excess.

I gaped for a moment, before quickly pulling my head back before any of them could see me. I sat under the window for a moment, eyes wide as I tried to figure out what the actual FUCK was going on, before I suddenly remembered just what I'd been working on the night before.

"FUCK, I'VE BEEN ROB-ED!" I yelled without thinking.

I immediately clapped both hands over my mouth, but it was apparent that I was to late as the sounds filtering in from down below cut out. A moment later, they were replaced with chattering and the sounds of a number of footsteps moving towards the building I was in.

"Oh bollocks," I muttered, "This is gonna suck...I really hope I can figure out how to…"

"INTRUDER!"

I spun around, just in time to see what looked like an unholy fusion of Human and lizard pounce at me from the door. I yelped and instinctively flung out my arm. In response, the wall behind me exploded and squashed the goblin between the opposite wall and half of the one behind me. I gaped for a moment, before I realized that my head was full of knowledge of how to Bend the elements to my will. All of them. I wasn't an Avatar since I lacked any connections to a Spirit, but apparently ROB or CYOA logic didn't give a shit about canon rules. I couldn't do anything to impressive without practice, but I could grasp the basics of all four.

However, my Bending abilities would only get me so far in this situation. I couldn't face an entire army of Goblins armed only with the basics, especially since I had no idea if Nilbog had created anything that could get stronger from water, earth or wind. I doubted it, but considering he managed to make one that replicated with fire, I didn't want to risk one that might be able to multiply if I got it wet.

Considering it looked like my powers came from my latest CYOA, I quickly cast my mind back to try and remember what I had access to. Bending was obvious, but the others were Paper manipulation (which wouldn't help here), Explosive Slash (again, not very helpful) and Fairy Dragon Physiology. That last one would probably be the best option considering what I'd be capable of if I could figure out how to use it. I also had Harry Potter magic, but I had a feeling that trying to use that without practice would be a horrible idea. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to start and the rest of the Goblins had just found me. And the squashed goblin I'd got with my Bending feat.

"OH MY GOD, HE KILLED KENNY!" screamed the leader of the Goblins that were hunting me, a short thing with slimy looking skin and big ears, armed with a very large wrench and sharp claws that seemed to be dripping acid.

"YOU BASTARD!" screamed another, smaller nasty with horns that were comically large on its small frame.

Despite the fact I was about to be killed by a madman's creations, I couldn't help giving the twisted monstrosities of nature a flat look.

"Really?"

"TAKE HIM TO THE KING!" screamed the leader, ignoring my exasperation.

"EEP!" I yelped and flung my arms out.

In response, the ring I hadn't noticed on my left hand glowed and the room expanded in a way that made my head hurt.

"Huh...I'd forgotten about that," I muttered as I glanced at the Vista ring.

The ring was made of a greenish yellow metal with a small, square shaped emerald setting with swirling lines engraved on the stone. Looking at it closely, it reminded me of a re-coloured version of the Gaunt Ring from Harry Potter, which was actually how I pictured it when I was coming up with this character for my story.

I looked away from the ring, making a note to experiment with it later, to see that the Goblins were still a good distance away from me thanks to the spatial warp and looking extremely annoyed. I decided that I should probably leave in case any of them had ranged attacks and decided to try and turn me into a target dummy.

I took a deep breath, turned to the hole in the wall and jumped, desperately delving into my mind for my Dragon Physiology power. I really hoped this worked or I was about to break my legs and leave me easy pray for…

"AH!" I yelped as I felt a surge of energy erupt from somewhere deep inside me, rippling through my body in the form of a bright, azure light.

I felt my body shift, lengthening and twisting as my legs fused together, my neck and face lengthened and a pair of wings shot from my back. It didn't hurt, in fact, it felt rather good, if a little odd. The change took less than a second and the glow vanished, just in time for me to spread my wings and stop my fall inches from slamming into the ground.

"Phew, that was close," I muttered, absently noting that my voice now carried a musical quality to it.

I shifted my wings, lifted myself up and looked down at myself. My body was now covered in fine, iridescent blue scales and had a build similar to a naga, with a tail instead of legs that ended with two long, pale green tendrils that were glowing faintly. My upper body was humanoid, with long, slender arms and a pair of insect like wings sticking out of my shoulders. I lifted my hands and ran them over my changed head. My face was now a short, but sharp muzzle, with a number of small, but very sharp teeth inside, a pair of large ears and a long mane of hair down my neck that was the same colour as the tuft at the tip of my tail.

"Interesting form," I muttered, "Oh well, so long as it does the job."

I buzzed my wings, sending a shower of sparkling dust drifting down as I shot into the sky at high speed. As I went, I delved into the powers this form granted me and my form shimmered and seemed to split apart, countless copies of me flying in different directions as my real body vanished from the visible spectrum while shrinking down to about six inches long. Now confident that I wouldn't be hit by a lucky shot, I picked a direction and flew towards, what I hoped, was freedom.

* * *

Despite what you might think, Elisburg wasn't that bad of an assignment for a PRT trooper. Oh, it could be a little nerve racking when Nilbog and his freaks started getting restless and you couldn't afford to be lazy unless you fancied being chewed out and reassigned somewhere a lot less pleasant, but as a general rule, things tended to be quiet as the crazed Biotinker prefered to stay behind the walls and his army of freaks were just as happy to stay put. At least it wasn't as depressing or traumatizing as the Simurgh containment zones.

Of course, anything that riled up the Goblins was something that had the garrison on high alert, although that quickly changed to besument as the camaras came back with images of the Goblins destroying a number of odd, dragon-like creatures that were buzzing around the town and exploded violently upon being attacked, sending a sparkling, golden yellow dust everywhere. Which then also exploded just as spectacularly in a riot of very loud and clearly very hot explosions that hurt many of the creatures that were caught in them, including a few that the Troopers knew should replicate in fire.

"Sooo...does anyone have any idea whats going on?" asked Agent Lee as the troopers watched another group of Goblins attack another of the strange creatures, only to once again get blasted by a riot of explosions.

"Haven't a clue," said Agent Smith, "But it looks like someone got in somehow."

"Another Cape?" asked Lee.

"That goes without saying," said Smith, "Some kind of Master by the looks of it…"

The wailing of an alarm cut off the conversation as both agents immediately responded, snatching up their helmets and guns as they followed their comrades in the mad dash outside to intercept whatever had managed to get over the wall to set of the alert.

It took less than a minute for the entire garrason to get outside, guns cocked and ready as the spotlights lit up the wall, just in time to catch sight of one of the odd exploding creature shoot over the top, grappling with a small swarm of Nilbogs critters with wings. Unlike the others, this one wasn't exploding and was instead spewing fire, golden dust and what looked like dark blue smoke that was making those creatures it touched scream and claw at themselves as if they were being attacked by swarms of ants. Usually right before they were covered in a cloud of dust and blown to bits.

The dragon-like creature shrieked in anger as it swung its tail, somehow pulling a chunk of stone from the wall and slamming it into a Goblin that had been clinging to its back, squashing it flat. A moment later, it shreaked again, this time in pain, as another flying critter latched onto its tail with needle-like teeth. It twisted and bathed the creature in another blast of its breath. The creature immediately started screaming, letting go in the process that allowed the dragon to grab it in both hands and switch its breath to a blast of fire that burned purple and turned the creature to ash in seconds. Then, the dragon twisted in the air, blasting the remaining attackers with more fire and smacking the one that attempted to use the fire to replicated with its tail so hard it and its offspring were nearly squashed flat against the wall.

Now free from its attackers, the dragon turned and began to slowly drift down towards the ground, its tail and arms drooping and its head held low with a long, forked tongue hanging out like a dog. It looked exhausted and was bleeding from more than a few cuts and gashes. It paused for a moment when it spotted the arrayed agents, but kept drifting down, altering its trajectory slightly so it would land a short distance away. Despite its apparent exhaustion, none of the agents relaxed as it landed, its tail coiling as it rested its hands on the floor, its head bowed and eyes closed.

A moment later, it started to glow, making the PRT agents tense, although no one jumped the gun and foamed it.. A moment later, the glow faded and all of the agents were taken aback to see a 15 year old blond boy in dirty pajamas looking rather battered and like he was about to drop.

"If your gonna arrest me, please make it quick," he said, "I really need to…"

He trailed off as his eyes drifted shut and he slumped forwards.

* * *

I HATE Goblins. I still have no idea how, but I'd somehow got spotted on my way out of Elisburg, despite being invisible and the size of a kitten. I'd nearly been eaten by one of the bastards before I managed to grow back to full size and blast him in the face with my breath weapon, which turned out to be some kind of psychotropic gas that made them either start screaming and trying to claw their skin off or giggling and rolling around like a cat on catnip. It was also flammable and produced a very, VERY hot flame capable of turning metal into slag in moments.

Unfortunately, that meant that I got every Goblin in town on my tail, even with my illusionary doppelgangers causing chaos with the explosive fairy dust, and had to fight my way out. I spent about three hours being chased around the town before I managed to spot the wall and make a break for it. Fortunataly, holding my form didn't use up energy, but Bending, my Breath Weapon and fairy dust definitely did, so by the time I managed to get out and deal with the last of them, I was dead on my feet and my injuries certainly weren't helping, hence why I passed out.

* * *

Speaking of, when I woke up, I found myself in a well stocked infirmary, cuffed to the bed with a rather bulky looking set of manacles covered in blinky lights. Tinkertech, probably designed for Brutes and preventing those chained up from getting loose. Fortunately, I had no intention of doing so, if only so I didn't immediately piss off the PRT. They might be corrupt, but if I wanted to figure out when I was and who I was, I'd need their help. I wouldn't be joining the Wards though.

I sat up, wincing as my bruised and cut up body protested. As I did, a middle aged man in a lab coat entered the room with a clipboard in his hands.

"Ah, your awake," he said.

"Yeah, and I feel like I've been dragged through three hedges and a brick wall," I grumbled.

"Yes, well, thats generally what happens when you get into a fight with Nilbogs creatures," said the doctor.

"Hnn," I grumbled.

I took a deep breath and let it out, a few sparks escaping my lips as I did.

"So, since I'm not in a cell, I take it you've concluded I'm not one of Nilbogs?" I asked.

"We have indeed," said the doctor, "Although we would like to know how you got into Elisburg."

I shrugged.

"Haven't a clue," I said, "In fact, I don't even know who I am. I haven't got any solid memories from anything earlier than waking up in Elisburg."

The doctor frowned as he scanned the clipboard in his hands.

"Hmm, I see," he mumbled, "Well, I think I can help with that."

He flipped the clipboard around and held it out to me. I took it and found that the papers clipped to it were a profile for a missing persons report.

"Theodore Anders, resident of Brockton Bay, vanished from his bed in the early hours of April 8th," said the doctor, "Reported missing by his stepmother, one Kayden Anders who he was apparently living with."

I listened with half an ear as the doctor rattled off more information as my mind whirled. This...would end badly. 'Amnesia' or not, I had no doubt that Keiser would jump at the chance to get me in the E88 and would likely do anything, up to and including threatening Kayden and Aster to do it. I needed a way to keep them safe and, preferably, a way to make my identity of a Cape disappear to. Fortunately, that thought brought just the thing to mind.

My mental encyclopedia of Harry Potter magic wasn't anywhere close to as comprehensive or massive as the one I had for my Bending, but it did have everything up to NEWT level, the basics of most other fields and an understanding of how to cast any spell I knew about, including the Fidelius Charm, which could apparently be cast on any secret, not just a location. That would be helpful.

I made a mental note to meditate later to see what else I could dig up (and to see if I could figure out how to craft a Wand) and returned the clipboard to the doctor.

"So, if you know who I am, why am I chained up?" I asked, indicating to the handcuffs.

"Your an unknown Cape with clearly strong powers," said the doctor, "Its standard practice to make sure they don't immediately have free reign. If we didn't know who you were, you'd be in a cell."

"Fair enough," I said, "So, what now?"

"Now I give you one last checkup while we wait for the Protectorate to send someone to pick you up," said the doctor.

I nodded and winced as I felt my injuries twindge. He checked me over and changed the bandages on some of the larger wounds. A few minutes later, the door opened and a trooper entered with two very familiar faces on his heels. Armsmaster and Miss Militia. Joy of joys.

"Theo Anders?" grunted Armsmaster.

"Apparently," I said, "So, I take it you two are my ride?"

Miss Militia raised an eyebrow and glanced at the doctor.

"Retrograde amnesia," said the doctor, "Although there is something a bit odd going on. His episodic and autobiographical memories have been wiped, but he still has his semantic memory. In other words, he can't remember anything about himself or anyone hes met, but he can still remember things hes learnt, general knowledge and the like. I think that whatever caused it was likely Parahuman in nature."

"Are you sure hes not Mastered?" said Armsmaster.

Well fuck you to!

"We have no baseline to compare him to, but his brain chemistry is reading within normal bounds and he hasn't shown any indication of being Mastered in the tests we were able to run," said the doctor.

Armsmaster just grunted and fixed me with a look. I steadily met his gaze, not intimidated by him in the least. His armour was made from steel and I could feel my Bending abilities connecting me to...hang on, where did...ohh, now thats cool!

I did my best to suppress my massive grin as I suddenly realized that my knowledge of Bending wasn't limited to the primary elements like I thought, but also included the specialized skills as well. I probably wouldn't ever find a use for Spiritbending or Combustionbending, I hoped to god I'd never need Bloodbending and I knew for a fact I'd never manage Flight or Spiritual Projections considering both required a level of spirituality only found in Monks which I most definitely wasn't. The others however...Metalbending would be a godsend against Tinkers and a good chunk of the E88, Lavabending would be handy if I ever had to fight Behemoth, healing was just an awesome power full stop, as was the Seismic Sense and who didn't want to be able to throw lightning around?

I quickly shoved my excitement behind the Occlumency barriers I just noticed (WOOT, Apprentice is fucking awesome!) to keep the grin off my face as Armsmaster grunted again and marched off. Dick. Instead of dwelling on the asshole, I turned to Miss Militia as she approached me.

"Ready to go?" she asked.

I shrugged.

"Sure," I said, "I could use some better food than what they've got here."

I ignored the doctors annoyed muttering as Miss M's eyes crinkled in amusement.

* * *

A short while later I was sat in the back of a Dragon transport across from Miss Militia while Armsmaster glowered and kept an extremely obvious eye on me. Miss Militia was a little less obvious, but she still didn't try to strike up a conversation. That was fine though, I needed to meditate anyway.

I ignored the two older Capes as I lent back in my seat, closed my eyes and slowed my breathing. Within moments, I had entered a meditative trance that I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to the day before.

Almost immediately, I found all my powers appearing before me in a way that I can't really describe, so I'll have to use a metaphor. My Wildcard powers floated off to the side, just kinda there, giving me ideas of what I was capable of with them. I quickly scanned them. They weren't...bad, I mean, the Fairy Dragon physiology alone was strong enough to earn me an S rank in moments if I ever went off the rails considering I could use it to turn entire acres of land into twisting nightmare forest covered in ice and snow in the middle of summer or a beautiful field of flowers in the coldest depths of winter.

Paper Manipulation wasn't as impressive. Oh, I could use it to control a frankly massive amount of paper and manipulate its properties to a degree, but I couldn't convert my own body into it. I could however shape it into just about anything I wanted and change its properties, meaning I could easily create weapons out of simple origami, create simple golems that could obey simple commands or create controllable puppets that resembled me. That'd be handy.

As for explosive slash, it was kinda limited, but still powerful. I could create blasts of various levels by cutting into objects, with the size of the cut corresponding to the size of the explosion. I could see it possibly being useful, but I could probably achieve much the same with far greater range with my Bending.

Speaking of which, my Apprentice abilities were the ones that had center stage, appearing as a pair of skill trees with a number of options selected and lots more grayed out. The Bending tree was nearly entirely filled in, with the only ones not available to be being Spiritbending and the very 'top' option that basically made me an Avatar. However, both of them would require me somehow fuse with Raava or a similar Spirit, which would be rather difficult since I'm pretty sure they don't exist around here. Well, unless the Entities count. As an added bonus, due to being closely tied to martial arts, I now had access to a good number, ranging from Tai Chi to Northern Shaolin kung fu. Well, that'd endear me to the E88!

The Harry Potter magic one on the other hand was both much larger and far more grayed out. However, many of the skills I had available were scattered throughout the tree, other than the first five years worth of schooling, all of which were available. It took a few moments of studying, but I quickly realized that those I had access to were what I knew about from the books, including the Patronus Charm, Voldemorts flight method, the Fidelius Charm, the Unforgivables, Animagus skills, Occlumency and Legilimency and the basics of Wandcrafting. Well, that'd be handy. My first job would be to make a wand since I wouldn't be able to do much more than cantrips without it. Wandless magic was possible, but currently a tad out of my reach.

Fortunately, even the basics of Wandlore revealed an interesting fact that wands didn't need to be a stick. So long as they were crafted from wood and a biological reagent from a Magical creature that would match the user, they could theoretically be any shape at all. Wands were simply the easiest to use, but the way the power worked meant that whether I used a staff, a wand or a ring, I would still be able to cast flawlessly. As an added bonus, my own hair from my Dragon form would make the perfect wand core for me. All I needed now was a suitable wood that had never felt the touch of Magic and a jar of organic wood polish and I'd be golden.

* * *

A light touch on my shoulder drew me out of my meditation and I looked up to see Miss Militia stood over me and the feeling of movement had stopped.

"We've arrived," she said.

I nodded and got to my feet. Time to face the music.

 **Hmm, you know how I said he wasn't OP? I take that back. I forgot that his Dragon form was rank 9, which basically puts it on a level where he could probably solo Lung, even without the ability to grow larger than his natural mass.**

 **Speaking of, I based the design of his Dragon form on the Ancient Fairy Dragon card from Yu-gi-oh without its armour. I don't play the game, but that was the pages main image and it looked cool, so I decided to use it.**

 **I hope my explanation for the skill trees makes sense. Its mostly irrelevant since I probably won't be using more than he has access to at the moment for a while, but I have to at least try to put on a good show, right?**

 **I originally intended to use Dresden Files magic, but being a walking EMP in a world with Tinkers sounds like a horrible idea.**

 **I'm pretty sure Theo's Shaker ratings going to make Labyrinth look like a chump. I mean, he can manipulate all four elements, metal, generate lightning, control paper and thats not even taking into account what hes capable of with Magic and his Dragon form.**

 **Yes, I'm using Theo for this. I also had an idea for using Greg, but then I decided that this would have a lot more interesting implications. I'll probably end up doing one with Greg later. Possibly with the crossover power giving him Magneto's power. Or Xaviers.**

 **Anyway, I'm done. Don't forget to leave a review on the way out!**


	2. Chapter 2

A Bad Choice

When I filled out a CYOA out of boredom, I never expected a ROB to take that as an invitation and drop me in it. Oh god, I really should have picked something that made me harder to kill! To make matters worse, I wasn't just dropped in, oh no, now I have the god damn Nazi's chasing me for my powers!

 **And we're back. Nothing to say here, just enjoy!**

Chapter 2

When Kayden discovered Theo's bed empty, she'd panicked. She'd be first to admit she could be distant with her step-son, but that didn't mean she didn't care for the lad. Hell, she'd taken him in after Max had kicked him out, not that that stopped the bastard from occasionally popping up to take his son on 'camping trips' that were more torture sessions attempting to get Theo to Trigger. Kayden still wasn't entirely sure what Max was trying to achieve with that since Theo made his opinion on his Father and the E88 very clear and considering that Max would be the one responsible for the Trigger, the chances of Theo ever working with the E88 were somewhere around the chances of Hookwolf becoming a Buddhist monk.

Considering all that, it wasn't completely unreasonable for Kayden to assume that Max was responsible for Theo's disappearance, although her decision to storm over to Medhall to confront Kaiser might have been poorly thought out. As was nearly blowing his head off when the bastard had the gaul to dismiss the fact his son was missing without a second thought.

Fortunately, she hadn't done the latter, although she had been charging up a blast before she managed to regain control. Instead, she'd settled for storming out, blasting a few ABB goons and, once she was calm(ish) again, had filed a missing persons report. She certainly hadn't been expecting a PRT trooper to show up on her doorstep a few hours later with news that Theo had been found. In Elisburg. Exactly how he'd ended up in one of the most dangerous places in the contrary, no one knew, not even Theo since he was apparently suffering from Amnesia. And a Cape.

* * *

Kayden stared at Theo across the table in the PRT's meeting room, not entirely sure what to make of the boy. Normally, he tended to hunch and avoid eye contact, a side effect of the horrible treatment of Max and his goons, but this new Theo had none of that. Instead, he sat straight and met her gaze with an intense look in his eyes that almost made it seem that he was x-raying her. Yes, this was definitely a different Theo to the one who vanished. She was almost looking forwards to seeing Max's reaction to him.

"So, your my..step-mother?" said Theo eventually, glancing at the agent beside him, a dark skinned woman with her hair up in a ponytail, who nodded, "Right, Step-mother...and my Dad is…?"

Kayden winced.

"Not coming," she said, "He's...not exactly hands on with you."

Theo raised an eyebrow.

"In other words, an asshole who doesn't give a rats ass that his son vanished without a trace?" he asked.

Kayden snorted.

"I'll take that as a yes," he said with a slight smirk, "So, we going? Its just, I really, REALLY need some real food and some better clothes than this."

He tugged at the collor of the PRT tracksuit he was wearing. Kayden nodded and glanced at the agent.

"You can go whenever your ready," she said, "All the paperworks done, although I have been ordered to once again tell you…"

Theo was already shaking his head.

"I get why you're so desperate to get me into the Wards, but like I keep saying, I'm not interested," he said, "I'm strong enough that I can handle myself and I have some plans that will keep my identity from leaking out. I might change my mind in the future, but for now, I need to get my head on straight."

The agent sighed, but nodded.

"Alright, I understand," she said, getting to her feet, "I'll show you out."

* * *

The ride back home with Kayden was done in silence, with Kayden not knowing quite what to say and me deep in thought. Passive Legilimency was one of the skills I had access to thanks to my knowledge of its existence, although I wouldn't be able to do anything if my target had even the most rudimentary Occlumency barriers and I couldn't go deeper than surface thoughts without actually casting the spell. Fortunately, Kayden didn't, allowing me to get some idea of the relationship between Theo, his Father and his step-mother from her surface thoughts. It...wasn't good.

Max was an abusive asshole who thought nothing of handing his son over to the likes of Hookwolf, Alabaster and Krieg to put him through hell to get him to Trigger and had put Theo through enough mental and emotional abuse that he was almost as badly damaged and withdrawn as Taylor. Moreso actually considering that it was his own Father who was responsible for it. Fortunately, Theo apparently HATED Max with a passion, not that the asshole bothered to acknowledge it. I could probably expect a visit from his goons pretty damn soon considering I was pretty sure that the E88 had spys in the PRT, so he'd know I 'Triggered' pretty soon. I needed to get those Fidelius Charms cast as soon as possible, which meant I needed…

I abruptly sat up as we drove past a small square with a bit of greenery in the middle of the town center and something caught my attention.

"Hey, stop the car a sec," I said.

Kayden shot me an odd look, but did so. I hopped out and jogged over to what I'd spotted. The small square was an oases of green in the steel and glass jungle that was the city, with a number of flower beds, benches and trees for shade scattered around the area. In the middle was a small lake or large pond my Bending senses told me was naturally formed and filled by the aquifer. By the look of it, the city had decided to leave it and turn the small area into a pleasant place to sit for the workforce of the city.

However, what had caught my attention was the large tree that stood beside the pond. It was a yew, with a trunk thick enough that I wouldn't be able to wrap my arms around it and a look that made me think that it was very rarely, if ever, pruned for whatever reason. Likely because it was far enough away from everything that it wouldn't interfere with powerlines, the footpaths or anything else. Not only that, but to both my Magical and Bending senses, the tree thrummed with life. It was old, much older than the city, and that made it perfect for a Wandtree.

I grinned as I scanned the branches, quickly spotting a likely looking one and, after a quick check of my surroundings, Bent a blade of air that chopped it off and dropped it into my arms. I grinned. Perfect.

"What do you need that for?" asked Kayden as I hopped back into the car and dropped the branch into the footwell.

"I'll need to build something before I can use some of my powers," I said, "For that, I need some suitable wood and some basic woodworking tools. Speaking of which…"

Kayden hesitated, before sighing and hitting the indicator.

"Fucking Tinkers," she muttered.

I hid a smirk. The only reason I'd heard her was thanks to my power amplified senses, so I kept my mouth shut.

* * *

A few minutes later, we pulled up outside a hobby shop where I quickly found a whittling knife set, some polish that would be perfect and a few more tools that I'd need to craft my Wand. I also picked up some engraving tools designed for use on stone so I could do some work with Runes.

With that done, we headed back to Kayden's apartment where we were met by a giggling Aster being entertained by a girl who looked about a year younger than me with short, dyed blue hair wearing jeans and a blue t-shirt with a music note on the front. She was also visibly Asian. Um, wut? I know that Kayden didn't technically subscribe to the bullshit spouted by the E88, but that didn't mean being exposed to it for years hadn't had an effect in canon.

"Hey Miss Russel," said the babysitter as Kayden tossed her keys into a bowl next to the door, "Did they...THEO!"

"Um, hi," I said with a slightly awkward wave, "Sorry if I'm awkward, I'm currently a tad short on memories."

The girl blinked.

"Huh, so you got Amnesia?" she asked, "Thats...not good."

"Not really, no," I said with a slight smirk.

"Hehe, sorry," she said, "Anyway, I guess I should reintroduce myself. Or should that just be introduce..?"

She shrugged.

"Whatever, I guess it just means we get a new first impression, right?"

I chuckled.

"I guess so," I said, "So, you know who I am, who are you?"

The girl smirked and held out her hand.

"Sayaka," she said, "Babysitter and occasinal bully pounder."

I snorted and shook her hand, noting her solid grip.

"I really hope I've never needed that," I said.

"Would it matter any more?"

"Good point."

"Alright kids, thats enough of that," said Kayden, clapping her hands, "Your Mother wants you home before dinner, so you really need to get going Sayaka. Do you mind if I pay you tomorrow?"

"Nah, its cool," said Sayaka with a wave of her hand, "I like watching Aster, shes always a joy."

Kayden smiled and nodded.

"Thanks again," she said as Sayaka put her shoes on and jogged out the door, waving over her shoulder.

"Well, she seemed nice," I said as I met Kaydens eyes.

I felt a little guilty for scanning her like this, but I was really curious as to whether she genuinely liked the girl or was just putting on a show. To my surprise, I found that it was the former. There wasn't even a hint of bigotry directed towards the girl or her family, who apparently lived down the hall. In fact, she seemed to genuinely like them, along with another family associated with them who's mother was the Lawyer who helped her smackdown Max when he tried to get Aster taken away for some inane reason. I couldn't get much more than that without digging deeper and I didn't want to do that with my Step-mother.

"Anyway, I've got work to do," I said, holding up the bag I was holding.

"Alright, you go Tinker," said Kayden, "I'll call you when dinners ready."

I nodded and hustled to the room she directed me to. Inside was...underwhelming really. It was a mid sized room, with a bed, desk, bookshelf and closet, but it looked...sterile. Like there was no real personality to it. I'm not sure why though, although I had a feeling that Max was likely behind it. I set my bag of wand reagents on the desk and opened the closet to find a selection of rather bland clothes in colours that were clearly designed to blend in. Hmm, either Theo was bullied or Max had had far more of an impact on the poor boys psyche than I thought. Dick.

I was about to shut the door again, but an odd ping on my Seismic Sense made me pause. Due to my level of Bending prowers, the use of Seismic Sense was basically instinctive, creating a sixth sense that wasn't any different to hearing or smell. Like those sense, it unless I focused on it, the sense generally didn't attract my attention unless something out of the ordinary pinged it. In this case, it was a small compartment hidden under a loose floorboard.

Curious, I knelt down and pried the hidden compartment open. Inside, I found a couple of large folders and a small bag of memory sticks. I reached in and pulled out one at random, flicking it open and scanning the information inside. Within moments, my eyes went wide with awe. The file was a list of crimes Theo had witnessed Max commit or heard him admit to commiting. The detail was incredible, including dates and names, and, if released, would utterly destroy, not just Max Anders, but most of the E88 and send Medhall's stocks plummeting through the floor, if the assets weren't just seized. Whats more, every single one of the crimes were committed by their civilian identity's, not their Cape one, meaning that there would be no issues with breaking the Unwritten Rules. I quickly put the file away and made a note to apply enough Magical security to it to make Gringotts jealous once I had my wand made.

Speaking of which, I sat down at my desk and started pulling the tools I'd got out of the bag and set about whittling the yew branch down. A traditional wand would be a complete liability for me, so I was planning to make a Focusing Ring. It would make more focused work, like Healing, a little more difficult, but not impossible and I could always craft a Wand later if I needed it. I had enough wood for it and since my Dragon form was the source of the Core material, I could get as much as I needed.

I quickly lost myself in the crafting of my ring, absently using my Metalbending to bring tools to my hands as I needed them as I transformed the branch into the parts needed to create both a Ring and a Wand. At one point, I transformed into my dragon form and plucked exactly six hairs from my scalp, twining them together and setting them in a mix of polish, sawdust from the crafting process and a few drops of my own blood. The blood wasn't technically necessary, but since I was crafting the Foci for my use, it would help them bond to me better.

* * *

The entire crafting process took two hours to complete and, once it was, I sat back in my chair with a sigh of relief. My fingers ached from the fiddly work and my bandaged finger was throbbing like crazy. Looking at what I'd made however made it more than worth it though.

Both Foci were white and gleamed under the light of my desk lamp. The ring had been carved with a pattern resembling celtic knotwork, with the Bending symbols set at equal distance around it in the Avatar cycle. The wand on the other hand had somehow ended up being shaped like a lightning bolt, with carved patterns that looked like they couldn't decide if they wanted to be vines or more lightning bolts. Both were practically thrumbing with power and I could practically feel my Magic reaching out for them.

Slowly, hesitantly, I gently picked up the ring and slipped it on my left ring finger, the one not occupied by my Vista ring. Immediately, my spine went rigid as I felt my Magic rush through me, making my hair stand on end and a faint, bluish green glow momentarily surround my body as the ring resized itself.

"Holy...shit," I breathed, not sure what else to say.

I looked down at the Wand and wrapped my hand around the handle. I felt my magic surge again as I took a deep breath and brought the wand swishing down. There was a flash of light, a gust of wind and a shower of bluish green sparks that danced around my room like fireflies. I couldn't help the mile wide grin that stole across my face as I watched the Magical light show. I was so engrossed in watching said lights that I ignored the sound of someone knocking on the apartment door, but I didn't miss someone a lot bigger and heavier stomping down the hall towards my room pinging my Seismic Sense.

I quickly tucked my wand out of sight, the sparks vanishing as the connection with my magic vanished, just in time for the door to be slammed open by a man with blonde hair in a military cut and a three piece suit that did nothing to hide his impressive muscles. Behind him were another two men, both skinheads, wearing black suits with very obvious bulges under their jacket. Well, it looks like Kaiser had decided to magnanimously to call me to him. Ass.

"Mr Anders, your Father requests your presence," said the leader, who I'm pretty sure was a Parahuman, although which one I don't know.

I raised an eyebrow. If he really put it like that, Kaiser was even more pretentious than I thought.

"You know, most Fathers would show up in person to make sure their son, who vanished into thin air and was found in one of the most dangerous places in the country by the way, in person, not call for them like some puffed up wannabe king," I said.

The mans nostrils flared, but before he could say anything, I stood.

"Alright, lets go," I said.

I caught Kayden's eyes over the thugs shoulder.

"I'll be back soon," I said, "Save me some dinner."

I followed the large man out of the building, ignoring the thugs as they trailed behind me like good mutts. I wasn't particularly worried about them. Thanks to the martial arts provided by my Bending abilities, I could probably take both of them out without having to toss around anything particularly flashy.

* * *

Downstairs, I was shoved into a limo where I was met with Hookwolf (who smelt like he hadn't showered in a week incidentally) and the man who had collected me pulled a gas mask out of a compartment and slipped it on. Krieg then. I wasn't interested in that however, I was more interested in what my Earth sense was telling me. Hookwolf's blades were iron. I'm not sure how, but when he used his power, he genuinely created metal, not a facsimile. In other words, the Empires heaviest hitter was completely useless against me because I could turn his own weapon against him. I wonder if I could do the same with Kaisers blades?

"What are you looking at brat?" growled Hookwolf.

"Nothing," I said, leaning back in the plush seat and looked out the window, smirking slightly.

I spent the trip amusing myself by using my Vista ring to subtly alter space to screw with the thugs, driver and Capes, both because it was amusing to see them fumble whenever they reached for something and because I needed to practice with it. The space warping ability, combined with my Bending would be extremely useful after all. I was also curious as to whether I could pull off some of the things Vista managed in Taylor Varga or if that was just fanon. Something for the future.

* * *

Eventually, we reached the back door to Medhall, where we were met by Victor and I was hustled in and into a lift that shot us up to the top of the building so quickly it made a mess of my air sensing and Seismic Sense. As a result, I stumbled slightly as my head started to spin. Hookwolf noticed my discomfort and scoffed under his breath.

"Pussy," he sneered.

"Mutt," I hissed back.

The big man snarled, but Victor stopped him from doing anything foolish. I completely ignored the metal user as I followed Krieg down a short hall and into a room that took up half the floor and was so ostentatious, I felt ill just looking at it. There wasn't any obvious Nazi symbolism, but there was plenty of Norse runes, artwork and statues on the decour. There was even a fountain for some odd reason Kaiser sat behind a large desk that probably cost more than Kaydens apartment, doing what looked like paperwork, flanked by the Giant Twins in full armour.

The second I stepped into the room, I took everything in and came to the conclusion that I didn't have to worry. At all. That might seem arrogant, but between the steel in everyone's costumes, the water flowing through the fountain and the many stone statues, I had plenty to work with. And that was without factoring in my Airbending, Firebending, Magic and Vista ring. And if needs be, I could just turn into a dragon and send everyone to lala land with my psychotropic breath. Yeah, Kaiser really REALLY should have done this in a wide open space. In here, my powers could turn everyone to mush if I wanted. Good thing I didn't. Yet.

As we entered the room, Kaiser put down his pen, clasping his hands in front of him as he studied me with eyes as cold as the steel he created. They were also completely undefended and gave me perfect access with my Legilimency. I really hope he wasn't stupid enough to leave them open like that in battle. Actually, what am I saying? You do that ya Nazi bastard! I did have to stifle a snort when I realized he was pulling off an Ikari death glare though.

"Hello Theo," said Kaiser, "It pleases me to see your safe."

I resisted the urge to snort, both at the ridiculous wording and the utter insincerity in his tone that even an idiot would pick up on.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to see you sooner, but Kayden neglected to inform you'd been found."

Bullshit.

"Rest assured, we will find who took you and make them feel the full wrath of the Empire 88. We shall show them that insults will not be taken lightly."

Alright, I'd almost like to see that considering that what took me was probably a basically omnipotent being of unfathomable power.

Kaiser shifted, lacing his fingers in front of him as he smiled. It was so slimy I wanted to go have a very long shower. In hydrochloric acid.

"Still, there is one silver lining," he said, "You may have lost your memory, but you have gained your powers at long last. Finally, you can take your place at my side!"

He stood and held out his hand.

"Come Theo, join us and we can finally make this City what it can be!"

I stared at my 'Father' for a moment, not entirely sure if I was supposed to take that spiel seriously or not.

"Dad...I'm an amnesiac, not an idiot," I said at length.

Kaiser twitched.

"I beg your pardon?" he said.

I snorted.

"The E88 is made up of idiots, weaklings and hypocrites, all following an ideal that should have died with the psychopath who created it," I said, ""Even without considering that your entire ideal is based on pure bullshit, the fact you think I'd ever work for you after everything you've done to me is, frankly, ludicrous. And yes, I am aware of all the 'training' you had Hookwolf and Alabaster put me through. Past me was a VERY diligent note taker. So, with that in mind, you can take that offer and shove it."

I turned on my heel and headed for the door. Before I'd gone more than a few steps however, I was stopped by two massive hands clapping down on my shoulders and a wall of blades shooting up in front of me.

"I think you may have the wrong impression," said Kaiser, his voice tight, "I wasn't asking. You WILL work with us or I'll make life very uncomfortable for Purity and Aster."

I sighed.

"Well, I kinda expected that," I said, "Still, I'd hoped that you'd have more class than to threaten your own daughter. Oh well."

Then, I elbowed both Krieg and Hookwolf in the gut, blasting them back with twin gouts of fire. The attack was so unexpected that Kriegs power failed to protect him, not that it would have been much use from point blank range. Another gout of fire let me spin around, using the movement to grab the water in the fountain and Bend it into a wave that slammed into the Twins, slamming them into the wall hard enough to crack it, before the water turned to ice, trapping them in place. A rather odd feeling through my Seismic Sense made me hop back, evading the spears and blades that erupted from the ground as Kaiser surged to his feet, a look of fury on his face. I just grinned and landed in an Earthbending stance, grabbing the iron blades and bending them to my will. Kaiser barely had time to yelp as his own weapons suddenly shattered in response to my hand movements and the razor sharp shards embedded themselves in the wood of his chair, inches from taking his eye out.

"Well, that was fun," I said as I dropped my stance.

Kaiser just glared.

"Yes yes, your very scary," I said blandly, "Now, heres whats going to happen. You are going to forget you ever had a son, an ex-wife or a Daughter. You'll leave us alone and never attempt to do anything to harm, recruit or even speak to us again."

"Or what?" snarled Kaiser, "You'll come back and kill me? You don't have the guts!"

I stared at him for a moment, before smiling evilly.

"Oh, is that what you think?" I asked, "Well, your right...to a degree. I won't kill you, but I will destroy you utterly. All it would take is a trip to the police station."

Kaiser burst out laughing.

"You'd out me?!" he sneered, "If you break the Unwritten Rules, there won't be enough left to bury in a fucking matchbox! And if you do that, you'll end up outing Kayden as well! I don't think I need to tell you what would happen to Aster after that!"

"Actually, I already have plans to stop any information that could connect Kayden to Purity from getting out from any source," I said, "But thats not what I mean. I'm actually going to give them the rather impressive number of files and memory sticks my past self apparently collected on your illegal doings as Max Anders. I may not be able to provide witness testimony any more, but I'm sure that the cops, FBI and hell, maybe even the PRT would still love to know what you've been getting up to."

By this point, Kaiser was white.

"You wouldn't," he said.

I lent forwards, resting my hands on his desk.

"Try me," I said.

Then I turned on my heel and vanished with a crack.

 **And done. Well, that was certainly interesting. Now, before I sign out, I have a question. I have two ideas for this, one of which is to add a bunch of choices that, in the context of the story, were added by the ROB responsible for him being on Bet and result in it becoming a crossover with Madoka, resulting in a whole host of changes, including a slight retroactive change to the date. Alternatively, I can just continue with it being a flat Worm story. Which would you lot prefer? I DO have plans that would result in Worm and Madoka style SHIT GETS WORSE! elements and how to get them to work together.**

 **Yes, Kayden is less racist here than in canon, mostly a result of her new friends who helped her get away in the first place. I think you can guess who they are, assuming the Crossover.**

 **My original version had Theo beat up the entire E88 Cape roster, but I scrapped that because it was a tad unbelievable. He might be a strong as a reasonably well trained Avatar, even without the Avatar State, but even he couldn't take down that many powered and experienced enemies without some serious suspension of disbelief and an environment that fully suits him.**

 **The method Theo used to get Kaiser to back off was inspired by the Warcrafter by RHJunior. Go check out his stories, their awesome.**

 **Yes, I do have a reason for having that little spring, other than the Wandtree. I also have a reason for using Yew. I was tempted to go with Holly, but Yew works better.**

 **Due to his Apprentice abilites, I plan for some people to start learning both Bending and Magic from him, although I'm still shuffling some things around to decide who gets what. I figure I might as well see what you lot thing. Any suggestions?**

 **And with that, its time to sign out. Don't forget, I need to know what you want to see! Until next time, enjoy!**


	3. Chapter 3

A Bad Choice

When I filled out a CYOA out of boredom, I never expected a ROB to take that as an invitation and drop me in it. Oh god, I really should have picked something that made me harder to kill! To make matters worse, I wasn't just dropped in, oh no, now I have the god damn Nazi's chasing me for my powers!

 **And we're back. As you can probably tell, this story won't be a crossover, although I can't be arsed to go back and change anything, so Theo still has a blue haired friend called Sayaka. She won't be a big part. Anyway, enjoy!**

Chapter 3

Apparition is...an interesting experience. Its a useful trick, but hardly the most comfortable. The first time I used it, I ended up bent over in Kaydens living room, trying to keep from tossing my cookies as my step-mother came pelting out of her bedroom, hands lit up and ready at the loud sound. At the sight of me gasping for breath, she slowly lowered her hands. The fact I was now feeling the after affects of my first 'fight', which was against the heavy hitters of one of the strongest gangs in the city certainly didn't help.

"Theo? How did you…"

"Hang...on…." I gasped, holding up a hand.

After a couple more seconds, I managed to regain my breath and straightened.

"THAT was unpleasant," I said, "I think I need to practice with that…"

I smiled at Kayden as she let her light fade now that she was sure I wasn't an invader.

"Sorry for just popping in, but I was in a bit of a rush," I said.

"Thats...fine," said Kayden, "What happened? And since when can you teleport?"

I sighed and dropped into the sofa behind me.

"My powers are...a little different than most," I said, "It may seem like I have a lot of different, completely unrelated ones, but I actually only have three. My Elemental Manipulation, my Dragon Form and an ability that allows me to manipulate an esoteric form of energy to perform all kinds of feats. Like this."

I waved a hand and the coffee table turned into a tiger. Kayden yelped and jumped about a foot in the air as the big cat yawned, showing off a mouth full of impressive dentition. Another wave turned it back into a table.

"Don't do that again," growled Kayden as she returned to her seat.

"Sorry," I said, although my unrepentant grin probably didn't do anything to convince her of my sincerity, "Oversized pets aside though, I'd actually like to try something."

"What are you planning?" asked Kayden.

I scowled.

"I've slapped Max down enough that we'll likely have some time, but I have no doubt that he'll try something soon enough," I said, "I'm worried that he might do something stupid like outing you. With that in mind, I'd like to use my power to make sure that no one will ever be able to connect Kayden Russel to Purity. I intend to do the same with my powers as well, but your the one I need to do it with as soon as possible."

Kayden frowned.

"What will it do?" she asked.

I remained silent for a moment, trying to think of a way to state it without sounding crazy.

"Well, basically it will create a Stranger affect that will mean that the only way someone can find out that your Purity is if you tell them directly," I said, "Any written versions of the information will be rendered unreadable to anyone not in on the secret and anyone who knows simply won't be able to remember the information, although they will know that they knew it. Even if they are later told the Secret, they won't be able to pass it on because they won't be Secret Keepers."

Kayden stared at me for a moment, eyes wide.

"That...sounds almost to good to be true," she said, "How is that even possible?"

I shrugged.

"How do you fly around and blow people up with energy blasts?" I asked, "Powers are weird."

"That they are," muttered Kayden.

She sat still for a moment, staring down at her hands, before she looked up and in the direction of her room where Aster was asleep in her cot. Then, she nodded.

"Alright, I trust you," she said, "Lets see if your little trick works as advertised."

I nodded and stood, indicating for Kayden to do the same. I snapped my fingers and my wand came shooting out of my room and slapped into my palm.

"Easier to use this than my ring," I said, "Now, I need you to focus on the fact that you're Purity. Hold the fact in your mind to the exclusion of everything else."

Kayden nodded and closed her eyes. After a moment, she nodded and I raised my wand. I tapped her once on the forehead, then on the heart and then waved my wand in a smooth circle around her head.

"Commendo isto," I intoned, "Clauditis Auferetur!"

My magic surged, surrounding both Kayden and I in pure, white light, before it was suddenly sucked into Kayden's chest. There was a loud clunk and I felt the Fidelius settle into place. As the Caster, I was exempt from the wipe, but not from being unable to divulge the secret. That remained solely with the Secret Keeper.

With the spell complete, I lowered my wand and let out a long breath. The complexity and power requirements of casting the charm were proportional to the number of people who knew the secret you were attempting to seal. Thats why buildings and areas of land tend to be more difficult to hide since anyone who walked past them knew about them, even if it was just subconsciously. With Purity's identity though, it was limited to the Capes of the E88 and, likely Coil and some of his minions, so casting the spell was a lot easier. Still draining though.

"There, done," I said, "I'm exempt as the caster, but anyone else will need to be told the Secret."

Kayden nodded, a slightly odd look on her face.

"That...felt strange," she said.

Then she shook her head and refocused.

"Speaking of strange, a delivery came for you while you were out," she said.

I tilted my head on one side.

"Whats strange about that?" I asked, "I know I've lost my memory, but couldn't past me have ordered something?"

"Not without a credit card you...he?...you couldn't," said Kayden, "Besides, why would you order an old steam trunk?"

"Huh?"

I followed Kayden into my room and stared down at the large trunk sitting innocently in the middle of the room with a key taped to the top. Other than being utterly out of place, it looked like a perfectly ordinary trunk with a crest that resembled some kind of lizard head on the lid above seven keyholes.

"I...have no idea what this is," I said as I picked up the key.

I slipped it into the first lock and opened it, revealing...a perfectly normal compartment.

"Well, that was...underwhelming," said Kayden as I shut the trunk.

"Yeah...I guess it was," I muttered, eyeing the other keyholes.

Something told me that I didn't want to try those with Kayden in the room. Fortunately, at that moment, Aster woke up and started screaming.

"Guess shes hungry," said Kayden as she left the room.

As soon as the door shut, I shot a locking spell at the door, getting a soft squelching sound in return, and turned back to the trunk.

"Alright, lets see what you're hiding," I muttered as I slipped the key into the second lock and lifted the lid, "HOLY COW!"

The reason for the exclamation was that, when I opened the second compartment, it revealed an utterly vast storeroom with racks and racks of metal shelves full of jars, boxes, bolts of cloth, rolls of leather and more. It was also apparently exempt from the laws of physics as the room extended downwards from myperspective, but the shelves were perpendicular to the floor.

"Thats...not normal," I said, "Even for Tinkertech."

I shut the trunk again and opened it with the third keyhole. This time, I was met by the sight of what looked like a wizards lab, complete with large amounts of esoteric glasswork, a cauldron and a number of shelves full of books. The next couple of keyholes revealed a training room with sparing mats, dummies, mirrors and a good number of exercise machines, while the next had a massive library, the sixth held a medical bay and the last one contained what looked like a fully furnished flat.

"Huh...thats...handy?" I said.

I had no idea where this had come from. None of my choices could possibly have resulted in this appearing out of nowhere, although it was clearly a Wizarding trunk. I slowly reached into the portal, before taking a deep breath and jumping in...only for the world to abruptly rotate 90 degrees and dump me flat on my back just inside the door.

"Ow."

I got to my feet and turned back to the door, only to be greeted by the extremely peculiar sight of my bedroom ceiling directly overhead. Right, need to stand this thing vertically to use it properly.

I turned my attention back to the comfortable sitting room, scanning the room for anything that could give me a hint where the Trunk had come from. The room was done in Gryffindor colours (and I'm not entirely sure if that was due to my nature or not), with a thick, red carpet, cheery yellow wallpaper that somehow didn't look tacky and an overstuffed lounge set around the fireplace, consisting of a large sofa, a loveseat, an armchair and a rather large wingback chair, all bound in red and gold fabric. The coffee table and side tables around the chairs were made of a dark, varnished wood, as was the bookshelves, glass fronted cabinets and other surfaces around the room. The surfaces were tastefully decorated with nick nacks that looked like the sort of things I'd pick up given half the chance. The room was lit by a mixture of the fireplace and a few lamps that burned with a strange, smokeless lanterns that just seemed to hold balls of light. A few doors led out of the room, but I was a lot more interested in the letter sat conspicuously in the middle of the coffee table addressed to me. With my Fanfiction handle.

I snatched up the letter and opened it, yanking out the parchment (really going for the Harry Potter theme, aren't they?) inside and scanning it.

 _Dear Mr Lexic,_

 _Or should that be Mr Anders now? Well, no matter, all that matters is that you are where you need to be and are reading this letter. As you might be able to guess, I am the ROB that dropped you into the Worm-verse. However, despite what you might think, it wasn't out of malicious intent or simple amusement. The truth is, I, like many of my brethren, simply like to make things interesting and better for the worlds of you 3 dimensional beings. I chose you because, well, your character seemed the most interesting out of all of the many created every day in your and all other versions of your world._

 _However, there was a slight issue that you didn't think of. Many of the Harry Potter elements would be difficult to fully use without resources. You were lucky that you gained a form that allowed you to craft a Focus, or you'd have been at a massive disadvantage. With that in mind, I've modified your CYOA to give you Resources. Unfortunately, since I had to follow the same rules contained within it, the S9 now want to recruit you when they come to town. Sorry about that! On the up side, I had some friends of mine make you this amazing Trunk! They do excellent work and I'm sure it'll serve you well. Plus, it'll get a chuckle out of the readers of this story._

 _Good luck. Your gonna need it._

 _ROB._

 _PS, only you can read this letter._

 _PPS, try not to break the fourth wall to badly!_

I went white as I finished reading the letter and exactly what the ROB had done sank in. The worst thing was, it was 100% correct. Without supplies, I truly was limited to what I could do with the HP information in my head. Hell, the fact I was able to make a Focus that worked as well as mine did was nothing short of a miracle! Still, the idea of having the fucking NINE after me was god damn terrifying, especially when you consider that I already have enough skills to make Jack very interested in me. I wasn't naive enough to believe that I'd never be pushed to far enough to be forced into using some of my more dark skills. I hoped I wouldn't be, but I wouldn't be holding my breath.

I sighed and headed back out of the Trunk, using Airbending to flip back to my feet rather than hit the floor. A wave of my hand had the trunk lifting up and floating over to a free patch of wall where I lent it against the wall and stuck it in place with a Sticking Charm. I paused, then layered a few Notice Me Not charms around it to keep anyone from noticing the Trunk, making sure to key Kayden to it. I could just leave it, but she already knew it was a thing and so the charms would likely have some odd affects on her.

With that done, I headed out of my room in search of food and, after an enjoyable meal and spending some time amusing Aster (who incidentally is the most adorable little girl I'd ever met), I did a quick bit of research to find out where Parians shop was located and when it opened. What? I've got a lot of different skills, but Magical fashion is not one of them. I could unlock it, but it'd be a lot easier to just have the expert do it. Plus, I'd love to see what she could do with the Acromantula silk and Dragon hide I'd found in my Trunk.

Yeah, apparently the Resources perk manifested as a frankly obscene amount of stuff in the Trunks storeroom, enough that I probably wouldn't be able to use it all in 100 lifetimes. A cursory look revealed the previously mentioned fabrics, enough ingredients to make a Potions Master drool, Dragon parts, every type of Wand core imaginable and the woods to go with it, massive crates of precious and semi-precious stones, gold, silver, platinum and more and even a chamber full of bricks of money from all over the world, including Wizarding money. I'd even found a stack of deeds and keys to homes all over the world under the names of a number of characters from the Wizarding world, ranging from the Potter Mansion in Wales, to a house under the name Goldstein in New York. Hell, I even had the Riddle House, 12 Grimmauld Place and the goddamn Hogwarts castle itself! That perk is utterly bullshit. As an added bonus, all my properties were linked with an internal Floo network that was also hooked into my Trunks fireplace.

Oh, and I also apparently had both Azkaban and Nurmengard, both of which were set up as prisons, presumably in case I ever needed to lock someone up myself. I really hope there aren't any Dementors floating around, although quite how that would be possible, I don't know. Still, sticking someone in a massive fortress in the middle of the ice cold north sea or half way up a mountain in the middle of nowhere would make escaping rather difficult, especially since both were apparently surrounded by a perpetual storm that made approach nearly impossible.

* * *

With my inspection of my (ridiculously extensive) assets done, and after casting a Fidelius on my identity as a Cape, I settled in to think about what I needed to do and what I wanted to do. I had three days before Taylor would meet Lung and the Undersiders, so I'd need to decide if I wanted to help with that or not. Despite what many people who wrote SI fics did, I didn't think that helping the Undersiders directly would be needed. After all, none of them had issues that were immediately pressing, other than Coil, who I'd be tossing into Azkaban anyway. Oh, I'd probably recruit them at some point, they were very good at what they did after all, but they wouldn't be my main focus. Taylor on the other hand...yeah, she needed help. I would not let her get anywhere close to becoming Skitter, let alone Khepri, and the best way to do that was to put myself forwards as a better option than either the Undersiders or the Protectorate, although I got the distinct impression that that wouldn't be hard.

After that, I'd focus on helping others that needed it. Amy, Dinah and Canary were the three at the top of the list, although I had no idea what I could do for the latter, short of just breaking her out and then hiding her somewhere safe. Or just completely change her appearance with Magic. It wouldn't be hard. However, I wanted to at least try to blow her case wide open, if only so Tagg would get completely fucked over. Dinah would be easy, just provide a Portkey to whisk her away if Coil managed to grab her and tag her with a Tracking charm to find where the snake was holed up. Amy would be a little harder, but providing my services as a Healer to get close enough to her to befriend her and introduce her to more people who could provide more friendship would certainly help. I'd also like to either get her away from Brandish or get the woman to get her head out of her ass, but that was for later. I'd also need to figure out a way to get rid of Victoria's Auras effects on the poor girl.

However, with all that in mind, I wasn't so foolish as to believe I could pull all that off with just one identity, especially with Canary, which would likely require some pretty underhanded moves. I didn't want the PRT to be able to railroad me and turn me into a villain for outing their dirty laundry. Fortunately, I had a ready made method for throwing of suspicion. I could use my Bending for one identity, my Magic for another and, hell, I could even use my Paper Control and potion making skills as a third and fourth. The best way to do it would probably be to pass the potions of as coming from a Tinker specializing in potions of various types who wishes to remain anonymous while providing assistance for my healer identity in the form of medicines and other potions. I probably wouldn't go quite as far as to have more than three though and I doubted I'd be able to keep it up for long.

Fortunately, while they did need to go through the FDA and PRT for testing, Tinkertech that worked was generally approved pretty quick and the FDA apparently had a Tinker working for them who had developed a handy machine that allowed them to cut down on a massive amount of testing, shortening the time from years to weeks. I have no idea how thats possible, but Tinkertech is bullshit. Fortunately, I had some potions in storage, although not an infinite amount like the rest of the ingredients, but enough to hand them over to the hospital for testing. Before that however, I'd need a costume.

* * *

The next day, I headed out to the Boardwalk (after assuring Kayden that I'd be fine) with a rucksack I'd enchanted with an Undetectable Extension Charm (which wasn't actually that hard) with a rather large bolt of Acromantula Silk and a few rolls of Dragon Skin leather from a number of different Dragons, ranging from the black Hungarian Horntail to the rather pretty shade of blue of the Swedish Short Snout. I also had a mask in my pocket I'd made out of a sheet of steel that I'd found in my Trunk and Bent into shape. I'd based it on the White Fang masks from RWBY which, while intended for intimidation, worked fine for what I wanted. Besides, the main reason why they were intimidating in RWBY was because they were based on Grimm, so around here, it was just a cool looking mask.

When I was nearly at Parians store, I ducked into a nearby alley and, after casting a quick Notice-me-not, slipped my mask on, flipped up my hood and ran my hand over my hoodie, changing it from the dark blue it had been to black and red, just in case anyone would recognize it. With that done, I dropped the Ward and headed out, making sure to keep my head down so no one could see my mask.

* * *

Pariens shop was located just of the Boardwalk and was a relatively small place. The front room was full of bolts of different coloured cloths and a few mannequins clad in high quality clothes, along with a few racks of premade clothes. A few of the Doll Capes large stuffed animals were scattered around the room, apparently randomly, but I was willing to bet that they had been positioned in such a way that would allow Parian the best advantage in case of an attack. The fact a snake was hung above the door was testament to that.

The shop was currently empty, but I could feel someone moving around in the back through my Seismic Sense who paused at the sound of the bell above the door going off.

"One moment!" called a faintly accented voice from the back room.

A moment later, the door opened and the doll masked Cape emerged. I have to admit, the sight of the porcelain doll mask was rather creepy.

"Good morning," said the other Cape, "What can I do for...you…"

She trailed off as I lifted my head and she caught sight of my mask. Out of the corner of my eye and through my connection to the air, I felt the clothing and fabric in the room start to shift slightly. OK, now that was actually pretty damn intimidating. Attacking Parian here would be right up there with attacking a Tinker in their lab in terms of stupidity.

"Whoa, I'm not here to cause trouble," I said, "I just wanted to see if I could commission you to make me a costume."

Parian relaxed slightly and the fabric stilled.

"You could," she said, "But my work is expensive and, well…"

She eyed me up and down, taking in my slightly worn jeans and scruffy hoody.

"I know and I actually have plenty of money," I said, "However, I also have something here to sweeten the pot."

Parian tilted her head on one side as I shrugged off my bag and opened it. Then, she jerked back slightly as I put my arm in up to the shoulder, despite the fact it was clearly much to small to do so.

"Wha...how did you…?" she spluttered.

"Powers," I said blandly, "However, the bag isn't what I'm offering, although I could make one if you wanted. Its actually this stuff."

I pulled out a bolt of Acromantula silk that was bigger than I was, followed by a few rolls of Dragon Skin. The Fashion Cape quickly overcame her shock and approached, curiously running a hand over the silk.

"This...isn't normal silk," she said.

"Nope," I said, "Its much, much stronger. A t-shirt made of this stuff would be able to take an anti-tank bullet without being penetrated."

I'm pretty sure that Pairans eyes were wide behind her mask.

"Wha...where did you get something like that!?" she spluttered, "Are you a Tinker?"

I smiled and shook my head.

"Nah, I just know people," I said, "I can give you what you'll need to work with it, but I'm sure you can come up with some impressive stuff for your shop."

"I'll say," said Pairan, "What about the other stuff? Some kind of snakeskin?"

My grin only widened.

"Nope, Dragon Hide," I said.

That got me a flat look.

"No, really, thats the best thing to call it," I said, "Its tougher than leather and has properties that let it either absorb or reflect energy."

"That sounds useful," said Parian, looking thoughtful, "How much of this stuff can you get?"

I shrugged.

"How much do you want?"

Parian stared at me.

"I've got piles of this stuff laying around," I said, "But I don't have a use for it. Fashion isn't really something I'm into and I wouldn't even know where to start. You'll get a lot more use out of it than me."

Pairan looked thoughtful for a moment.

"So, all you want is a costume in exchange to access to this stuff?" she asked.

"Well, I might ask for more help later, but yes," I said, "Don't worry, it won't involve fighting, but I might request more costumes."

Parian tilted her head on one side, apparently thinking things over.

"Alright, keep me out of your fights, and you've got a deal," she said at length.

I nodded and offered my hand. Parian eyed it for a moment, before slowly shaking it. I smiled. This was the first step on getting what I needed. I let go of Parian's hand and reached into my bag, pulling out the potions and tools needed for working with Acromantula silk and Dragon Hide as Parian led the way into the back room to get started.

* * *

"So, what do you think?" asked Parian as I examined my new outfit in the full length mirror.

Parian is VERY good at what she does. Even working with unfamiliar fabrics and tools, she'd put her power to work, helped along with the few spells I knew that were intended for tailoring or whatever the actual term was, to put together a costume to my specifications within just a couple of hours.

The outfit consisted of a full length, hooded robe-like garment that fell to just below my knees with slits in the front, back and sides, making it more akin to a four tailed coat than anything else, to allow full freedom of movement made of dark red Acromantula silk with dark golden lining, a black, sleeveless jerkin made of Hungarian Horntail skin that matched the boots, which extended up to protect my knees gloves and bracers, the latter of which had a wand holster built in, a belt with pouches I intended to enchant with Extension Charms later and a pair of black silk trousers. Combined with my mask, which was now painted black, I struck a rather striking image. Maybe not the most heroic of images, but a striking one nonetheless.

"Very impressive," I said, "You do excellent work Parian."

"Well, there is a reason why I'm considered the foremost provider of Costumes for Capes," she said, smirk clear in her voice, "Plus, I'd say you've more than earned my best considering what you've given me access to."

She indicated to the fabrics I'd given her.

I smiled and tugged on my hood.

"A pleasure to be of assistance," I said, "Speaking of assistance, if you ever need it, feel free to give me a call."

I pulled a card with the number of the burner phone I'd claimed from Kayden's stash for use in my Heroic identity. Parian took it.

"Thanks," she said, "So, do you have a name yet?"

I grinned.

"Call me Avatar."

 **And done. You know, I'm sure I got the inspiration for Theo's costume from somewhere, but for the life of me I can't remember where. Oh well, its cool and thats all that matters.**

 **So yeah, the ROB's in fine form here, although at least he's helping...sort of. Plus, he had the decency to warn Theo that the Nine would be gunning for him when they showed up in the future.**

 **If you think Taylor's spider silk costume is a bit implausible, its got nothing on one made from Acromantula silk. Plus, there is a certain amount of logic about the fact that a magical spider the size of a carthorse would have silk thats pretty fucking strong.**

 **Yeah, Resources is OP as hell. To be clear, there isn't a Wizarding world on Bet, its just that, since the Resources was taken mainly for use with his HP based powers, thats what its drawing inspiration from. The only magical elements of his many properties comes from Wards, the Floo and the Magical storms around the prisons, and the fact that they are Unplottable. Hogwarts is full of magic as in the actual HP world, but thats limited to whats actually part of the building itself. There aren't any Magical creatures or anything. No House Elves, no Dementors or anything else. Then again, having some House Elves running around could be rather helpful…**

 **Anyway, I'm gonna leave this here. Next time, Avatar makes his debut by punching Nazi's repeatidly. Don't forget to leave a review!**


	4. Chapter 4

A Bad Choice

When I filled out a CYOA out of boredom, I never expected a ROB to take that as an invitation and drop me in it. Oh god, I really should have picked something that made me harder to kill! To make matters worse, I wasn't just dropped in, oh no, now I have the god damn Nazi's chasing me for my powers!

 **And we're back. Nothing to say here, other than enjoy!**

Chapter 4

With my costume now secured and an in with someone I was very interested in recruiting in the future, I left Parian's shop in my civies and went to get some of the other things I had to do that day done. Unfortunately, they weren't quite as interesting as getting my hero costume made.

Apparently, Theo attended Arcadia and, while they had signed off on a few weeks leave since, you know, amnesia, they still needed to know how much it would affect me and if I'd need help to get back to where I needed to be. That meant a rather large list of online tests I had to do. I'd been told that there was no rush, so long as I got them done before I went back to school, but I wanted to get them out of the way.

Plus, Kayden had asked me to keep an eye on Aster.

* * *

I spent the day working through the worksheets and test, while entertaining Aster with origami puppet shows. Fortunately, while I didn't consciously have the memories of Theo learning this stuff, the knowledge was still there, locked behind Occlumency barriers which, combined with my own smarts being brought out by said Occlumency, made completing the worksheets a synch. I didn't submit them immediately though, instead I'd do so gradually over the next couple of weeks. Fortunately, there was enough in there that it kept me busy until Kayden got back from work, so I wasn't to bored.

"I'm home!" called Kayden as she entered the apartment.

"Hey Kayden," I called back as I put the kettle on, "Want something to drink?"

"Coffee," said Kayden.

I nodded and got to making the drink and a tea for me as my step-mother happily greeted a giggling Aster, who was happily playing with a paper doll I'd made for her while a few paper butterflies fluttered around her. Once she was done with that, Kayden joined me in the kitchen area and accepted the cup I handed her.

"So, did you have a good day?" she asked.

I shrugged.

"I guess so," I said, "I got all the tests done. Apparently, my knowledge is just buried and it just took a solid smack to bring it out. I haven't got any memories back though."

And I doubted I ever would either. I was trying not to think about the fact I'd basically killed a 15 year old with my arrival.

"So, how did it go with Parian this morning?" asked Kayden after a moment, apparently wanting to get off the topic of amnesia.

I grinned.

"Great, I got what I wanted," I said.

Kayden raised an eyebrow.

"Well, lets see it then," she said.

I rolled my eyes, but put my cup down and headed for my room. A few minutes later, I was back in full costume. Kayden looked me over with an impressed look on her face.

"She does good work," she said.

"I'll say she does," I said, "This took her two hours to make."

Kayden hummed thoughtfully.

"Maybe I ought to see if she could do something for me," she mused, "It'd be nice to have something else that doesn't immediately link me to the Empire. Plus, I really ought to go and make my split official now that bastard Max can't do anything to connect me with Purity."

"I'll Ward the hell out of the apartment as well," I said, "I'm pretty sure the Fidelius will keep Aster safe, but its better to be safe than sorry."

Kayden nodded.

"Thats a good idea," she said, "Your…'spell' might keep everyone from knowing I'm Purity, but I wouldn't put it past Max to try something against you or just kidnapping Aster."

I nodded.

"I can't do as much as I'd like since its not a house, but...hmm...actually, I might have a better idea," I said.

Kayden blinked as I put my cup down and hurried back to my room. I barely noticed her following me as I opened my Trunk and stepped inside, smirking slightly at the shocked gasp when she saw the expanded interior.

"Where...how is this possible?" she asked weakly.

"Its actually pretty easy if you know how," I said as I dug through the large number of assets I had access to, "Apparently, the being responsible for me getting warped, wiped and empowered felt guilty enough that they provided me this and a heck of a lot more."

"Wait, a CAPE made this!?" spluttered Kayden.

"Nope."

I could almost see the expressions poor Kayden was pulling at the moment, but I was a lot more interested in the deed I'd finally managed to unearth. It was for a house in one of the upper scale neighbourhoods, one that, according to the deed, was Warded to hell and back, with the only ones missing being the Fidelius and other cloaking charms since it was located in a Mundane neighbourhood. I could fix that easy enough, but I probably wouldn't bother. Mainly because said Neighbourhood (which was called Rowena Drive because subtly is dead when it comes to this shit) also happened to be where New Wave and the current chief of Police, along with his Daughter and Son-in-law, who I was pretty sure were Assault and Battery, lived. Even Max Anders wasn't dumb enough to try and kidnap someone from there.

I grinned as I turned to face a rather pale Kayden, who looked like she was trying desperately not to think to hard about something.

"So, how do you feel about trading up?" I asked, handing her the sheaf of papers that contained all the information on Ravenclaw House.

Yeah, the ROB has been reading to much Harry Potter.

Kayden slowly took the papers and started reading through them. It didn't take long for her eyes to bulge in utter shock.

"How the fuck did you get something like this!?" she spluttered.

"A very very sorry omnipotent entity," I said, "I've got more assets than I know what to do with and thats not even mentioning the frankly absurd amount of money I have access to. I even have stocks in Medhall."

Kayden whimpered and collapsed into the nearest chair.

"This...I don't even know how to take this," she said weakly.

"Just accept it and move on," I said, "Trust me, you'll feel better than thinking about it to hard. At best, you'll give yourself a headache and at best, an existential crisis."

Kayden grimoused and nodded.

"That...I can agree with," she said, "I think I'm just going to file all this under 'power bullshit' and leave it at that."

"Probably wise," I said, "So, moving?"

Kayden hesitated.

"Let me think about it," she said, "I'm...not against it, but its still not something I want to rush into."

I nodded.

"Perfectly understandable," I said, "While you do that, I'm going to see if I can find some crimes to stop."

Kayden nodded absently as I turned on my heel and vanished with a pop. No need to allow anyone to figure out where I lived after all, even if the Fidelius would make it impossible to actually figure out my identity. I reappeared in an alley near Medhall and immediately disillusioned myself and took off, flying into the darkening sky.

* * *

It didn't take me long to find trouble. Trouble in this case was a group of skinheads stalking a young black girl who looked younger than I was. Well, that aint gonna fly! A quick flip in mid air had be angled downwards as I dispelled the Cloaking spell and slammed into the ground, using a mix of Earthbending and Airbending to keep the impact from snapping my legs and to knock the skinheads off their feet with a wave of rock and a blast of wind. The sound of the impact made the girl jump and spin around, taking in the scene in an instant before taking of just as quickly. Smart girl.

"What the fuck?!" yelped one of the skinheads.

"Sorry, did I interrupt you?" I asked.

"The fuck are you nigger lover?" sneered one of the goons.

I raised an eyebrow and looked down at myself. I know that Nazi's arent exactly renowned for their intelligence, but surely they knew better than to mouth of to unknown Capes?

"New Cape," I said, "I was looking for trouble and I guess I found it."

I grinned and spread my arms.

"Well, wanna try me?"

The skinheads glanced at each other, before pulling out a variety of weapons and charging. I sighed. I thought they'd be smarter than that. I shifted my stance slightly and tapped my heel against the ground. In response, a small pillar of stone shot out of the ground under the one goon with a gun, knocking him off balance as he tried to line up a shot. My costume was bulletproof, but that didn't mean I wanted to be shot. Then, I spun, my arms shifting into the elegant movements of my Waterbending form as muddy water from nearby puddles came to life and lashed out like whips, tripping two of the skinheads, before a second change of form sent a third crashing into a dumpster with a blast of wind.

"Well, that was easy," I said.

Of course, that was when the last one tried to stick a knife in my back. I responded by stomping and sending her flying with a pillar of rock shooting up underneath her feet. She came down in the dumpster with a loud crash.

"Nice try," I said as I started gathering them all together, ignoring the curses and threats directed my way.

"Kaisers gonna fuck you up!" screamed the apparent leader as I tired them up with an Incarcerous.

I paused.

"You know, I'd almost like to see him try," I said, "If only so I can show him what a real metal controller can do."

I grabbed the dumpster and flexed my power, causing the entire thing to be compressed to the size of a fist. Then, I unraveled it into a long cable and wrapped the goons in that as well, welding the ends together with a short blast of fire. Then, I took the cable that wasn't wrapped around them and slung it over a nearby handy fire escape and used it to hoist them off the ground, leaving them hanging there for the cops. Speaking of which, I pulled out my Cape phone and dialled 911.

"Hello police, whats your emergency?" came a rather bored sounding voice.

"Hello, this is Avatar, a new Cape," I said smoothly, rolling my eyes as there was the sound of something falling over in the background, "I just stopped a group of E88 thugs accosting a young girl. Their currently hanging around waiting for you."

"I...see," said the responder, "Where are you located?"

I quickly rattled off the location.

"Alright, a cruiser is on the way," said the responder, "Can you stick around?"

"Sure," I said, "Goodbye."

I hung up the phone and tilted my head.

"I know your there," I called.

There was a clatter and a muffled gasp, before the girl I'd saved emerged from the mouth of a nearby alley, looking a little sheepish. She looked about 14, but was already well into beautiful territory and would likely be a complete knockout in a couple of years. She had a streak of purple in her choppy hair and was wearing ripped shorts, fishnets and a top that looked about two sizes to small. I blinked in surprise. I...think I just saved Imp without realizing it. That's...interesting.

Aisha glanced between me and the slowly twirling Nazi's, who were attempting to shout and curse me out, but weren't able to thanks to the Silencing Charm I'd hit them with.

"That...was awesome!" she exclaimed.

I couldn't help but smile at her exuberance.

"It was nothing," I said, "Beating up Nazi's should be considered a public service."

I idly slapped the ankle of one of the goons, setting the whole thing spinning. Aisha snickered as the skinheads visibly started shouting louder.

"How are you keeping them quiet?" she asked.

I smiled and summoned a visible ball of wind in my hand.

"Sound is just vibrations through the air," I fibbed, "I created a bubble around them that stops sound from getting out."

I didn't want my Magical abilities getting out just yet. Aisha shot a shrewd look my way and I had to remind myself that she was SMART. I wouldn't put it past her to figure out I was telling porkys, but she didn't call me out on it.

"So, your new?" she asked.

"First fight," I said, "As a Cape at least."

Aisha grinned.

"Guess I should be honoured then," she said.

I grinned.

"Sure, the first of many fair maidens who owe me, the Great Avatar, their lives!" I said, putting a hand to my chest and striking a heroic pose.

Aisha snorted and cracked up at my antics.

* * *

Half an hour later, the cops had picked up the goons and got the details of what happened from me (Aisha had left shortly before the cops had arrived). I was only too happy to fill them in, although they seemed surprised at how polite and helpful I was. Guess their used to people like Armsmaster, most of the criminal Capes or new Triggers still scared of their own shadow and driven into conflict by their Shards. Whatever the case, I intended to try and maintain a cordial relationship with the cops, even if a good chunk of them were likely on the take, and that meant being polite and helpful wherever I could be.

Once I was done with the cops, I took off again, this time picking a random direction and drifting along, enjoying the feeling of being able to fly under my own power. It was...interesting. Before coming here, I had been uncomfortable with heights, but now I knew that there was nothing to fear. I had about a dozen ways to prevent a fall from hurting me.

Of course, the idle moment was also perfect for giving me time to think, something I hadn't had chance to really do since I arrived. I'd been going full tilt, basically on autopilot the entire time, working through what I 'knew' had to be done. Getting Kaiser to back off, sorting out a costume, going on patrol, all of those things were done because they needed to be done, not to mention the fact that it kept my mind active so I didn't think to hard about my current situation. Now I could and I was regretting it as everything sank in and my mind finally caught up.

I was in WORM, a world that made fucking MADOKA look fuzzy by comparison! Not only that, but I already had the E88 pissed at me, the ABB would be very soon and the S9 would be sniffing around in the future. And that wasn't even considering the fact I'd essensually killed someone when I arrived. I wasn't entirely sure what happened to the original Theo, but he was gone and wasn't coming back.

I staggered in the air as all of that and more suddenly hit me, my Occlumency only taking the edge of the emotions. I could easily lock them all down, but doing so would turn me into an icy statue, unable to feel properly and overuse could easily result in sociopathic tendencies. Kinda like Taylor and her emotional dumping into her swarm actually.

I barely managed to land on a nearby rooftop before I lost my hold on the Flight Spell and crashed, although I still ended up rolling across the rough surface of the roof, coming to rest under an air conditioning unit where I curled up and let the emotions flow. Probably not the best place to do it, but I wasn't about to try Apparition in my current condition. I...honestly don't feel like going into what happened under that cold metal box, only that it was easily the lowest point in my life. The knowledge that I was in a world that could and likely would chew me up and spit me out, that I would likely never see my family again, that I'd basically killed an innocent kid...it all crashed over me with the force of one of Leviathans waves and provided the perfect situation for a Trigger Event. You know, if I wasn't already empowered.

* * *

Eventually though, the panic attack receded, leaving me curled up and shaking, barely aware of my surroundings as I rolled over and emptied my stomach. It was only when someone yelped that I realized I wasn't alone.

"Oh, quit flailing Vicky, its just some sick," said a voice from beside me, "I'll clean it up in a sec. Hand me that jug and a glass, would you?"

I spat a couple of times, trying to clean the taste of vomit out of my mouth, before a glass was pushed into my hand. Without thinking, I drained it, washing my mouth out and spitting it in the other direction of the voice. With that done, I woke up properly and looked up, blinking away tears.

I was still on the roof I'd landed on earlier, although I was no longer alone. Sat cross legged beside me was a girl with frizzy brown hair pulled back in a bun wearing red and white robes that wouldn't look out of place in a Final Fantasy game. Floating in the background with a look that was an odd cross between disgust and worry was a statuesque blonde in a white dress, an over the shoulder cape and a tiara. I had to stifle a laugh. Most people in my situation met Glory Girl and Panacea on the job. I met them at my lowest point. Just my luck.

"Are you alright?" asked Panacea.

I sighed and let my head rest against the cool metal behind me, already feeling my Occlumency helping to stabilize my emotions.

"Yeah, I'm OK," I said, "Its just...a lot of stuff hit me at once."

Both girls grimoused.

"Trigger Event?" asked Vicky.

Well, no one ever claimed that she was tactful.

"Yeah, pretty much," I said with a tight smile.

Victoria winced.

"Sorry," she muttered.

Panacea shot her sister a reproachful look.

"So, I assume that your new?" she asked.

I nodded.

"Yep, first day on the job," I said with an idle wave.

I winced as the wave pulled on the previously unnoticed injuries from my fall. My costume had protected me from getting cut up, but I was still bruised, especially where my shoulder and back had slammed into the aircon unit.

"Do you need me to heal you?" asked Panacea.

I shook my head.

"No need, I've got it," I said as I reached out to the jug still in her hand.

A twitch of my fingers had the water flowing out of it and into my hand. The liquid began to glow faintly as I pressed my hand against my shoulder and immediately felt it go to work, soothing and fixing my damaged muscles. I relaxed as the glowing water washed away the tension and pain I hadn't even noticed until that moment. It didn't take long to fix the damage and I, rather reluctantly, pulled the water away and returned it to the bottle. It was only then that I realized the Dallon sisters were gaping at me.

"What?"

"You can heal?" asked Panacea.

I blinked and nodded.

"Not to the level that you can, but yes," I said.

Actually, that wasn't entirely true. Combining my Magical abilities, potions and Bending meant that I could probably outdo Panacea considering that there were potions that could fix all but the most extensive of brain damage without compromising the patent like Panacea's power could do. However, I wasn't going to advertise that just yet because it would paint an even larger target on my back and I didn't have the skill to make those potions myself yet. Still, even with my Bending, I could fix a lot, even if I couldn't regenerate body parts. Considering all that, it made me wonder just how hard Jet got hit when he died in the cartoon for Katara to not be able to heal him.

"Is that why you came here?" asked Panacea, "To volunteer help?"

I blinked.

"What are you…"

I paused as the sound of sirens reached my ears and looked over the edge of the roof. In the car park below me, an ambulance had just pulled up in front of the doors of the building and was now disgorging paramedics and a gurney. I'd landed on the roof of the hospital without realizing it.

"I...well, thats unexpected," I muttered, "Actually, I was planning on getting more of a reputation before I started offering my assistance here. You know, to stop people from panicking as a new Cape entered the emergency ward."

Amy snorted.

"Yeah, thats probably a good idea," she said, "Still, we could use the help…"

I shrugged.

"I'll be busy over the next couple of days, but I'll probably come by sometime next week," I said, "If you need me before then, give me a call."

I handed both sisters a card with my number on it.

"Heroes need to stick together and, while I am new, I'm also powerful and happy to help."

Both girls looked surprised, but nodded. I smiled and got to my feet.

"Hey wait, you haven't told us your name!" called Vicky before I could take of.

I paused.

"Huh...I keep doing that for some reason," I said, "I should probably work on that…"

I shook my head and bowed slightly.

"My names Avatar," I said, "I look forwards to working with you both."

"...wow, that was lame," said Glory Girl.

I just burst out laughing as I vanished with a pop.

* * *

I appeared across town in mid air and immediately activated my flight spell, angling towards Rowena Drive. I was pretty sure that Kayden would take me up on the offer to move into the house there, so I might as well go take a look around the property. I Disillusioned myself as I reached the gated community and drifted down, not really wanting to draw too much attention from the locals, especially considering at least two families were Capes themselves. I landed outside Ravenclaw house and used a Switching Spell to swap my costume for my Civies that were tucked away in one of my pouches. Then, with a quick check to make sure no one was watching, I dropped the charm and took a proper look at the house.

It wasn't massive, but it was a lot nicer than most of the houses in the suburbs of the city. It was certainly large enough for a family of four to live comfortably, which meant it was probably a little to large for our tiny family, but that was fine. I had a number of actual mansions and a goddamn castle, so this was a much better choice.

Considering that the house was supposed to be empty, the garden was in surprisingly good shape and the exterior was clean, with what looked like freshly painted doors and window frames. Odd. I shrugged it off and stepped up to the front door, pulling the key out of my pocket as I went. I unlocked the door and stepped inside...and was immediately met by two loud cracks.

 **...I regret nothing.**

 **I hope I did a good job of Theos breakdown. I can do emotional scenes, but they tend to be of a fluffy variety and in the third person. First person is a lot more difficult.**

 **Is it a bit convenient for him to meet both Aisha and the Dallon sisters in one go? Possibly, but what the hell, you can blame the ROB if you want.**

 **On a completely different note, do you guys think that Waterbending healing could be used to fix things like depression and Master affects? According to the Wiki, it can be used cure mental distress and tampering, so maybe? Let me know what you think.**

 **Anyway, this is done, so I'm gonna sign out. Don't forget to leave a review!**


	5. Chapter 5

A Bad Choice

When I filled out a CYOA out of boredom, I never expected a ROB to take that as an invitation and drop me in it. Oh god, I really should have picked something that made me harder to kill! To make matters worse, I wasn't just dropped in, oh no, now I have the god damn Nazi's chasing me for my powers!

 **And we're back. Before we begin, I'd like to be clear that, while I don't plan for any outright crossovers, having long learnt my lesson in that regard, I will be including nods to other series and playing around with the concepts of alternative worlds and the connections between said worlds. What do I mean by that? Well, you'll have to wait and see! Until then, enjoy!**

Chapter 5

I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sudden sound and nearly blasted the source with a blast of fire. However, before I could, my brain caught up with what was stood before me and stalled, the fireball in my hand going out in the process. They were small, with light gray skin, batlike ears and tennis ball sized eyes. One was apparently female, with a tomato sized nose and brown eyes, while the other was male, with green eyes and a thin, pencil-like nose. Both were wearing clean tea towels worn like togas in the same colours as my costume and stamped with the Elemental circle surrounded by stars.

"Em…wut?"

"Welcome Master Theo!" said the two House Elves with a bow and a curtsy.

It was at that point that I realized I was stood with my arm up as if to blast them, although now I just looked like an idiot. I quickly put my arm down and shook my head violently. The I pinched myself and double checked my Occlumency. Nope, the House Elves were still there. At the risk of repeating myself, em…wut?!

"Um, at the risk of sounding stupid, you two are House Elves, right?" I asked, my brain still not having properly rebooted.

Both elves nodded, their ears flapping.

"Dobby and Winky are House Elves," said the male, "We'ze been given to Master Theo by Lady ROB. Lady ROB said it was to good a chance to miss."

I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose. Of course, what other reason could there be for House Elves to put in an appearance than because the ROB found it funny? Its what I'd do if I was writing this story after all.

"I see," I said, "So, is it just you two or…?"

"House Elves be assigned to all of Master Theo's properties," said Dobby, "But Dobby and Winky are Masters main Elveses."

I blinked as the image of me unleashing an army of House Elves on the world momentarily floated into my mind before I quickly banished it.

"Riiiight," I said slowly, "So, I take it that you two are fully capable of following my orders then?"

My answer was a rapid head nod from both.

"Alright," I said again, my mind already spinning as I put things together and altered my plans, "Dobby, your job is to get Canary's triil and the bullshit surrounding it blown up and preventing her from getting railroaded. I don't care how you do it, but she WILL NOT get Caged. If she does, get her out and take her to one of my properties out of the country. I would prefer that not happen though, so do everything you can to get hre either declared innocent or, better yet, the case thrown out. Can you do that?"

"Yes Master!" said Dobby and vanished with a pop.

I pushed away the thought that I'd just signed some poor schmucks death warrant for their sanity in favour of turning to Winky.

"Winky, your jobs a bit easier, so feel free to help Dobby if he needs it and keep up your normal tasks. I need you to keep an eye on Dinah Alcott. When Coil makes his play for her, you are to keep her safe, no matter what. If possible try to do it in such a way that he can't simply get rid of the timeline."

"Yes Master," she said and vanished as well.

Doing my best to avoid imagining Coil being brained with a frying pan (and no, I don't know why that image came to mind) in favour of exploring the house. It was decently large, with five bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large sitting room, a dining room and a large and fully stocked kitchen. It didn't take me long to figure out that water and gas would be provided by runes, so they weren't connected, although we would still need electricity. It was certainly a lot nicer than our flat and even had a large basement I could turn into a lab or training room if needed. As expected for a place named after Ravenclaw, it was done in blues and bronzes.

Exploration done, I headed back to the main hall and Apperated back to my bedroom.

"I'm home!" I called as I walked out of my room...only to find Kayden boxing up stuff in the kitchen, "Um…"

"Hey Theo, did you have a good day?" she asked.

I nodded.

"Yep, beat up some Nazis and met the Dallon sisters," I said, "What are you doing?"

"Packing," said Kayden, "Your right about this place not being safe."

I tilted my head on one side and raised an eyebrow.

"Some of Max's goons have been sniffing around the building," said Kayden, "And I've done some research. Apparently, this building is owned by a company I know for a fact is a front for the E88 which, thinking about it, makes sense considering it was Max who got this place for me when he was trying to keep me sweet."

I nodded.

"Fair enough," I said, "But let me deal with the packing."

Kayden frowned.

"Why? What are you planning?" she asked.

"Well, lets just say I've got more help than I thought," I said, "Winky?"

CRACK!

"Master Theo called Winky?" asked the little Elf as Kayden nearly jumped out of her skin at her sudden appearance.

"I need you to pack up all our stuff," I said.

Winky nodded and snapped her fingers. She vanished, and everything started vanishing and neatly packed into boxes that popped into existence.

"Theo…"

"Shes a House Elf," I said, "Apparently, my powers come with a lot more baggage than I thought."

"Shes a Master construct?" asked Kayden carefully.

I paused.

"Lets go with yes for now," I said, "I'll give you some books that'll do a better job than I could later. For now, all you need to know is that both Dobby and Winky are powerful Movers, Strangers and Shakers who basically look after my properties and act as servants."

Kayden took a deep breath.

"Alright, but why are they from Harry Potter?"

I tripped over the edge of the rug.

* * *

So apparently the Harry Potter books exist on Bet. They were one of many imports from Aleph and never really caught on over here. Oh, they had a cult following, but the adventures of Harry and his friends never caught the public's imagination like they had in my old world, or even Aleph. This...could make things weird.

Of course, it also made explaining some of my skills a lot easier, although there was no way in hell I was introducing myself as a Wizard, even if I did have more claim to the title than Myrridin. I think. For all I knew, he could actually be Har…NOPE, not finishing that thought! I would NOT tempt either Fate or the ROB to actually make that happen!

Anyway, with that done, Kayden headed downstairs to talk to the landlord about us moving out while I started stacking up the boxes. I could just have Winky pop them over or do it myself, but that would attract way to much attention. True, the Fidelius would keep anyone from fingering me as a Cape, but it still wasn't worth the risk.

Fortunately, the Landlord was a plump, cheery fellow who, while a little sad to see some of his residence move out on such short notice, was happy to call a van hire and help us bring our stuff down. Fortunately, we didn't actually have that much stuff packed as the house was already furnished, so we didn't bother taking any of the stuff from the apartment. Most of it was second hand and a little crap anyway.

Once we were all loaded up, we hopped into the van and drove off. As we did, I spotted a few young men with shaved heads watching us go. Guess that Max now knew we were headed somewhere out of his potential to control. Eh, that wasn't a problem.

* * *

We arrived back at Ravenclaw House in good time, attracting a fair amount of attention from the neighbours as we pulled up and started unloading. It was about that time that I realized that someone upstairs may have it out for me. Why? Well, our neighbours were the Dallons on one side and the Alcotts on the other. Well, at least that would make keeping an eye on Dinah easy for Winky!

It didn't take long for a curious looking Vicky to come floating over, followed by a slightly sullen looking Amy.

"Hi, are you moving in?" asked the beaming blonde.

"No, we're carrying boxes inside for fun," I drawled.

Vicky's grin faulted slightly.

"Oh, haha," she said, crossing her arms under her bust, "Just what we need, another smart ass. You'll get on great with Amy."

"Eh, I'm fine with that," said Amy with a shrug, "So, I'm sure you know who we are, might we know your name?"

I grinned and stuck out my hand, shifting the box in my hand onto one shoulder.

"Theo Anders," I said, "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise," said Vicky, shaking my hand with a grin and nearly dislocating my shoulder, "Victoria Dallon. You can call me Vicky."

I only managed to keep from getting yanked of my feet with an application of Air and Earthbending to keep me grounded. Once she let me go, Amy stepped up, looking slightly annoyed. Actually, that seemed to be standard practice for her.

"Sorry about her," she said, "My sister doesnt know her own strength sometimes."

"Love you too sis," said Vicky, sticking her tongue out.

Amy rolled her eyes and shook my hand. As she did, I noticed for the first time that her eyes were a rather unusual shade of green, albeit darkened by tiredness and stress. I had to wonder what they looked like if she wasn't so worn down.

"Nice to meet you," she said.

I admit, I was a little curious as to what would happen when Amy touched me. I'm almost certain that she had to have got a good look on the roof the other day since I'd been in the recovery position when I'd come to and I'm almost certain she'd recognize my biology. The question was, would the Fidelius keep her from making the connection or would it count as me revealing the secret? Or would there be some bizarre interaction between her Shard and my Magic that would result in her head exploding or her undergoing a Second Trigger or something?

Fortunately, nothing particularly crazy happened and she just let my hand go and turned away

"So, do you need a hand?" asked Vicky.

"Not sure, let me ask," I said, "Kayden, do we need a hand?"

Kayden stuck her head out of the door and frowned slightly when she spotted the two heroines. It was a little amusing to think that a former villain now lived next door to a family of heroes. I'd have to make damn sure that everyone knew that Purity had turned over a new leaf as soon as possible.

"Sure, if they don't mind," she said, "I need to see to Aster anyway. Shes getting fussy."

"Right ho," I said.

I turned back to the sisters and jabbed a thumb at the van.

"Grab a box and bring it inside," I said "I'll sort out what goes where later."

"K!" said Vicky and grabbed two boxes from the back of the truck.

Boxes I knew were full of books and were heavy enough that I would have trouble lifting them without help from Magic. God damn Brutes.

With the extra help, it didn't take long to finish unloading the van and led to the rest of the Dallon clan emerging to see what was going on, which in turn led to Brandish and Purity having a polite conversation. It was...odd to say the least. Odd or not, so long as no one got blasted, I was fine with it.

* * *

The next couple of days were spent settling into Ravenclaw house and practicing potion brewing. Well, I practiced brewing potions, Kayden decided to head out on patrol and ended up blasting a number of E88 goons who thought it was a good idea to corner and try to beat up a black woman and her young son. Apparently, they had thought that Kaydens arrival was good for them, right before she reduced them all to quivering lumps of pain and left them hanging from a lamp post in a very public message that she was no longer affiliated with the E88 in any way. The PHO boards were currently going more than a little crazy over it and I imagine that the PRT and Empire weren't much better. Kaiser especially was probably spitting nails.

But that wasn't really what I was interested in, not when I had some things to get between brewing potions. I had no intention of allowing the PRT to paint me as a Villain if I ever clashed with them for whatever reason (read, Armsmaster being a dick), so I went out while waiting for one of my potions to finish simmering and bought some cameras that had been designed by Dragon and were basically indestructible gopros that could be mounted to a helmet. Mine was added to the side of my mask, hidden under my hood and a few Notice Me Not charms. I had no doubt I'd get plenty of awesome footage. Like seeing Lung getting the crap kicked out of him by a newby with a swarm of bugs.

Yep, I was currently holding position high above the Docks where I knew the ABB were meeting to deal with some upstarts thanks to a helpful goon I'd beaten up earlier. I didn't intend to step in to help Taylor since beating someone like Lung would only be useful for improving her confidence. Of course, if something changed and it looked like she'd get seriously hurt, I'd step in, but this fight was hers.

I'd already spotted her, lurking in the shadows with the help of my Dragon forms enhanced vision. I haven't used this power much since it wasn't really that helpful, despite being absurdly powerful. Honestly, the best useage for it was probably either stealth work or if I ever needed to completely wipe out an entire population. And yes, I know thats rather odd, but consider this. My Dragon form was stealthier than Imp at full power if I wanted to, yet could also transform the entirety of Brockton Bay into a frozen wasteland if I so desired, on top of being able to make everyone in the area deliriously happy as they froze to death, create illusions powerful enough to physically affect the victim and control the growth of plant life to the point that I could turn the city into an orchard, garden or rainforest as easily as I could freeze it. And that was before considering my explosive fairy dust. Apparently, the fact my forms Rank 9 wasn't simply the change itself, but rather every power within the form. I would never, ever tell anyone just how powerful my Dragon form was. If I did, I'd be nuked by some paranoid idiot.

Anyway, the fight going on below was mostly going the same as canon, with Taylor getting him in the eye with her pepper spray and then having her bugs bite Lung like crazy, which seemed to really piss him off. I frowned. My vision was currently better than an owls, but I couldn't see any sign of the Undersiders. If they didn't hurry up, Taylor was gonna…

My thoughts were cut of by a roar as Lung pounced at Taylor, fist drawn back to crush her.

"NO!" I shouted, twisting in the air to dive.

However, before I could, there was a loud CRACK and Lung went flying back with a flash of red light. I froze, eyes going wide. How did...that wasn't Taylors power! I might have thought that she'd Triggered with a different power somehow, but I hadn't taken that option, so the only things that could change was things that I changed. The Undersiders not showing up was one thing that could have changed because of me, but not Taylors power. Plus, she'd clearly been using her bug powers throughout the entire fight. I looked away from Lung, who was slowly shrinking back to Human form, apparently completely unconscious, and back to Taylor, who looked like she was gaping behind her mask. Hmm, thats interesting.

After a moment's thought, I shifted back to Human form, drew my wand and cast a quick diagnostic charm. It wasn't really meant to be used at a range like this, but it still worked fine. It certainly worked well enough to let me know that Lung had been Stunned. It was sloppy and overpowered to a ridiculous degree, to the point that he wouldn't be waking up at all for about a week without intervention, but Stunned nonetheless. I frowned and turned my wand on Taylor. The results I got back made my eyes widen in shock.

She not only had a Magical Core, but registered as a Half-blood to my spell. That meant that at least one of her Parents HAD to be capable of Magic. However, I knew that there wasn't a Magical world on Bet because the deeds and other information I had access to made it clear that, although Magic was present, there were no users. So, with that in mind, how could Taylor register as a Half-Blood? This bore investigating.

That would have to wait for now though as Armsmaster had just arrived. I smirked slightly as I reached into my pocket, pulling out a sheaf of black paper and another camera. A flex of my power shaped the paper into a bird with the camera hidden inside. It flew down and landed near Taylor in the perfect place to get the perfect video of Armsmaster convincing Taylor to give up the credit for Lungs defeat. It could come in handy in the future.

Thanks to its small size and colour, neither of the Capes below noticed it as they talked. It didn't take long for Armsmaster to send Taylor on her way. I recalled my construct and tucked the camera away.

"Alright, next job, talk to Taylor," I muttered.

I turned and flew down in the direction Taylor had gone, dropping into the alleyway she'd disappeared into. I dropped down behind her, making her jump and spin around, her eyes wide and visible thanks to her lack of mask.

"Whoo boy, this aint gonna end well," I muttered, "Whatever."

I sighed, before grinning and raising a hand.

"Yo, that was quite the impressive fight back there," I said, "Names Avatar. Nice to meet you!"

"I...what?" said Taylor, looking slightly taken aback.

"Your fight with Lung," I said, "Being able to beat him alone on any night is an impressive feat, let alone your first."

Taylor frowned.  
"You were watching?" she asked.

"Only the last bit," I said, "I would have got involved, but you seemed to have it well in hand."

"Um, thank you?" she said, shifting awkwardly.

"So, what did Armsy want?" I asked, "He make the offer to join the Wards?"

Taylor winced slightly.

"Um, yes," she said.

"And I bet you turned him down, right?"

Taylor stared at me, before nodding slowly. I grinned.

"Good for you," I said, "Trust me, joining the Wards is probably the worst thing you could do if you actually want to be a Hero. Their so wrapped up in red tape, its a miracle that the Protectorate ever manages to help anyone!"

Taylor looked a little taken aback at that.

"Um, OK?" she said.

I grinned, before reaching into my pocket.

"That said, if your gonna go solo, you might need these."

I held up a camera, still in its box, and a burner phone.

"Having video evidence of what you get up to might well save your neck one day," I said, "It just takes one mistake to get labeled as a Villain, so don't let it happen. The phone will let you contact the authorities if you need help. Its also got my number programed into it, so you can call me."

Taylor frowned.

"You'd do that?" she asked.

I shrugged.

"We're both new and both independent heroes," I said, "If we don't help each other, who will? The PRT is more interested in getting as many Capes as they can or protecting what they have, New Wave is lacking in active work, other than Glory Girl and Panacea and any one of the Gangs would be happy to either kill or recruit us. I've got my Step-mother as back up, but you don't even have that. With that in mind, why wouldn't I want to help you?"

Taylor hesitated for a moment longer, before she slowly took the offered items.

"Thank you," she said.

I grinned.

"Don't mention it," I said, "And don't forget to call if you need anything."

I waved and Apperated away with a loud crack.

* * *

Taylor jumped as Avatar abruptly vanished, leaving her standing alone with her mask in one hand and the boxed camera and phone in the other. That had been...odd, not to mention nerve wracking. The sudden appearance of the dark clad Cape she didn't recognize had been scary, especially when she'd already taken her mask off. However, he hasn't said anything about it and introduced himself as another new Hero, one she recognized from PHO as having debuted the day before saving a girl from a group of Nazis. That alone was good enough to get him in a lot of peoples good books since his obviously high quality costume and caucasian skin colour precluded him from the ABB and Merchants and the girl he'd saved had said that he was a good and pretty funny guy.

Even so, the offer of help and gifts had been rather unexpected.

Taylor looked down at the boxed camera and phone and, for a brief moment, considered tossing the latter. Ever since her Mothers death, cell phones had been persona non grata in the Hebert households, but she forced herself to stop. Avatar was right after all. She'd been forced to fight Lung because she didn't have a way to get in contact with anyone, if she'd had a phone, she might have been able to call for help. She wasn't to sure about the camera though.

She was well aware that it didn't take much for the PRT to get the wrong impression of a new Cape in the first few months, but Armsmaster knew she was a Hero, so that wouldn't happen...right?

Despite herself, her mind couldn't help but think about the fact he'd been willing to take advantage of her beating Lung like that and take the credit for it all the way home and, that night, her dreams were full of her being declared a Villain to keep her quiet.

 **Welp, there we go, this is finally done. Sorry for the wait, but a combination of work kicking my ass, the heat doing my muse in had made focusing on this a pain in the neck**

 **Yes, Theo now has House Elves! Its important to point out that neither Dobby nor Winky are the same characters as the ones from HP, they just look, act and are generally identical to them. Normally, I wouldn't need to make that differentiation, but, well, considering what I have planned, its important.**

 **As I said up top, I will be including nods to crossovers and they will come in the form of four characters from each series. The Avatar ones won't be appearing until later and will mostly be of a Spiritual nature, but the HP ones will have an actual effect on the Physical plain. We've seen two characters who've been affected by them, so can you guess who I have in mind? One of them should be obvious, the others will need more time.**

 **A reminder, HARRY POTTER IS NOT POPULAR ON BET! Its present and sells, but in the same way that DC and Marvel don't really have much presence, neither does HP. Is that clear? I hope so because I won't be addressing it again.**

 **If your wondering why Taylor was so quick to accept the stuff from Theo, its because she was so taken aback she didn't think to refuse. Besides, their both Heroes and Heroes are supposed to look out for each other! Right? Hehe.**

 **Anyway, time for me to sign out. Don't forget to leave a review!**


	6. Chapter 6

A Bad Choice

When I filled out a CYOA out of boredom, I never expected a ROB to take that as an invitation and drop me in it. Oh god, I really should have picked something that made me harder to kill! To make matters worse, I wasn't just dropped in, oh no, now I have the god damn Nazi's chasing me for my powers!

 **And we're back! Nothing to say here, other than enjoy!**

Chapter 6

With the first big event out of the way for now and the ball in Taylors court, I decided that I might as well start on my plan to help out another girl who desperately needed it. I wasn't done with Taylor of course, but I hoped that I'd hear from her eventually. If not...well, I'd deal with that issue when it came up. For now, I had something a lot more important to deal with. Namely, getting legal representation, just in case.

To that end, I asked Kayden if she knew anyone and she directed me to the attorney who had helped her get Kaiser of her back, who in tern put me in contact with someone who specializes in Cape law. It took some time to set up a meeting, mostly because of my age, but the guy seemed nice enough and was certainly competent. I'd mentioned that I wore a camera when in costume and he encouraged me to keep it up. I also brought up the possibility of possibly getting the PRT to look at the potions I made, albeit wrapped up in the illusion of asking for someone else and he said he'd look into it and have detales for when we met in person. He'd also given me the go ahead to help out at the hospital, so long as I kept my camera active.

With that in mind, I filled a bottle with Magically purified water that was perfect for healing and Apperated a short distance from the hospital. I decided that I might as well walk the rest of the way rather than flying. The Flight spell wasn't exactly energy intensive, but healing was and I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of Magic available, just in case. I'd stick with my Waterbending for the most part, but it would still be helpful to have access to my Magic as a just in case.

* * *

My choice to walk rather than fly got a lot of attention from the general public, along with a fair few phones getting pulled out and aimed in my direction. I had to employ my Occlumency to maintain my casual and nonchalaunt gait to prevent the nervousness that came from being the center of attention from showing.

"Hey, Avatar, wait up!"

I paused at the familiar voice and turned as Aisha came jogging up. I was about the greet the girl, right before I spotted the impressive black eye she was sporting.

"Impressive shiner," I said, "Are you OK?"

Aisha winced and gently probed her bruised face.

"I'm fine," she said, "I just...got into a fight."

I didn't need my Seismic Sense to know she was lying, but I decided not to ask.

"Hold still," I said, pulling some water out of the bottle at my hip.

Aisha did as I asked as I gently applied the water to the side of her head. It took less than a second for the swelling to go down. The girls eyes fluttered shut as my Bending did its work and she let out a soft sigh. Well, at least it wasn't a moan like that old cliche. That didn't stop her from following my hand a little as I pulled the water away before she blinked and shook herself off.

"Hoo boy, that felt weird," she said.

"Does the job though," I said, "Try not to get into any more...fights, OK?"

Aisha twitched slightly, but hit it under a cocky grin.

"OK _dad,_ " she said cheerfully, "Anyway, I gotta go. Thanks for the heal!"

I rolled my eyes as the irrepressible girl jogged off, apparently ignoring the looks she was getting.

"I think I know how Grue feels now," I muttered as I continued on my way to the hospital.

* * *

It didn't take me long to arrive and I immediately walked up to the front desk, ignoring the staring crowds and the security guards who tensed and moved their hands to their weapons as I did. I had to wonder just how much help they thought they'd be if I was there to make trouble.

"Hi, I'm Avatar," I said to the receptionist, who was frozen with a cup of coffee halfway to her lips.

She slowly put it down, eyeing me warally.

"Um, I see," she said, "Can I help you? You don't look injured…"

I smiled and shook my head.

"No, I'm not injured," I said, "I'm actually here to offer my assistance. I'm a healer, among other things and, while I'm not as good as Panacea, I can still do a lot to help."

The woman blinked, her mouth opening and closing a few times, before she shook her head and cleared her throat.

"I see," she said, "Well, I'll need to call the Director, but I'm sure we can work something out. Please take a seat."

I did as I was told and started shifting through the stack of magazines on the small table next to me. It was mostly garbage of course, but I was never good at just sitting around doing nothing. I sighed and instead pulled out some of my backup paper. For reasons I couldn't explain, I'd picked up an interest in origami over the past couple of days, having found myself absently folding surprisingly good cranes, dogs and flowers considering I'd never done it before. I think it had something to do with my ability to manipulate paper, but I wasn't going to complain. An interest in paper folding was far from the worst side effect of powers and it helped pass the time.

As I finished the bird I was making, I spotted a couple of kids watching me with wide eyes and smirked as I held up the little paper creation and blew on it. A slight application of my power had the bird taking off and fluttering around the kids, making them gasp and laugh happily as they tried to catch it.

The clearing of a throat drew my attention away from the kids to a man in a lab coat who had approached me.

"Mr Avatar?" he said.

"Thats me," I said as I turned to the man.

He was elderly and impeccably dressed, with slicked back gray hair and a rather twitchy looking bald man on his heels who looked like he'd rather be anywhere else. I blinked a couple of times. I swear I know those two, but for the life of me I had no idea where from.

"My name is Dr Kelso, the Chief of Medicine," said the older man, "I understand your here to offer help like Miss Panacea?"

"Um, yes sir," I said, "I'm not as powerful as she is and I can't heal everything, but I can do most things, so long as it does not require directly regrowing things. I can even affect the brain to a degree, although that is a little more limited."

"I see," said Kelso, "Well, I see no reason to turn down the help. Lord knows we need it...Ah, Dr Cox!"

I blinked and glanced over my shoulder as a tall man who looked like he'd been trying to sneak past unnoticed twitched and slowly turned, a look of resignation on his face.

"Whats up Bob?" asked the Doctor.

I frowned. Wait a moment, this seemed oddly familiar.

"I need you to take Avatar here around the Hospital," said Kelso, "Hes offered his abilities to help empty some beds. If possible, get Panacea to check his work, not…"

He turned back to me.

"That I think you're incapable, but we do need to be sure."

I waved off the apology.

"Its fine," I said, "I understand."

"Excellent," said Kelso, "Do have fun."

He smiled at Dr Cox and walked away with his shadow on his heels. The tall doctor sighed and turned to me, eyeing me up and down with an unimpressed look in his eye.

"So, your a Healer?" he asked.

"Yep," I said, "I can't restore anything thats missing and I'm not entirely sure what the limits are yet, but I'm willing to try."

Cox sighed and turned away.

"Alright, fine, lets get this over with," he said, leading me out of the lobby and towards the lift, "As if I don't have enough to deal with with all the useless Interns…"

I raised an eyebrow as he trailed off into incoherent mutterings. More and more I got the impression I'd stumbled onto something that was part of something very different from your standard Worm fair.

I quickly decided that it wasn't worth getting involved with and focused on doing my job, which was basically fixing the ailments of the apparently random patients the Doctor led me to. It was an eclectic bunch, ranging from broken limbs to a variety of illnesses. Some I healed in moments, others would need more sessions to fully heal (or a subtle use of Magic), mostly the broken bones. Most of them were thankful, although a couple were a little put out at essentially being used as guinea pigs for my power and one old man kicked up a fuss over not being healed by Panacea and giving out such a nasty aura of highly inappropriate lust over the idea that I put a minor bad luck curse on him and refused to do anything to heal him, instead walking away. If he didn't want healing, I wouldn't be doing it.

* * *

Eventually, we arrived in a ward where Panacea was hard at work and...oh dear. It took one look and I could immediately tell that she'd been here all night, even with her hood up and scarf around her face. I glanced at my watch. It was 2pm, so she was probably on the Vocational time Arcadia allowed for the students, but from the looks of her, she should have been fast asleep in bed.

A sharp intake of breath beside me made me glance at Dr Cox, who had just spotted Panacea and had a rather annoyed look on his face.

"Whats she doing here?" he muttered as he started towards the other Healer.

I quickly followed him over to where Panacea was stepping away from her last patent and turned, only to pause at the sight of the annoyed Doctor. Up close, she looked even worse, with clammy looking skin and dark bags under her eyes. Impressive considering I'd seen her just a couple of days ago and she looked fine. I had to wonder if her power took more out of her than I thought.

"Oh, good afternoon Dr Cox," said Panacea, blinking blearily as her head drooped slightly.

"What are you doing here?" said the Doctor.

Panacea looked a little confused, although that could have been the exhaustion.

"My job?" she mumbled.

Dr Cox sighed.

"Amy, you were still here when I left yesterday," he said, "At 9 o'clock. Carla said that she had to literally chase you out at gone midnight, just like every day in the last week."

I blinked. Good god, that wasn't good! I sent a general Diagnostic spell her way and found pretty much what I was expecting, extreme exhaustion brought on by running for about five days straight without sleep. Not only that, but I was picking up signs that she'd been smoking, although most of the toxins had been flushed (not that that shifted the tar build up) and a rather powerful Magical core...of for fucks sake, not another one!

I shot a few more Diagnostic spells at the people in the Ward, but got back a lot of Muggles and one absolutely tiny Core that barely counted as a Squib. Right, so not everyone was capable of Magic. I'd have to check some Capes later to be sure it wasn't something to do with that.

"You need to take some time off and get a good nights sleep," finished Cox.

"B-but I can't just leave!" protested Panacea, now visibly swaying on her feet.

"You can and you will," said Cox, "In fact, I'm going to call your sister to pick you up and you will not come back in for at least a week. Understand?"

"But…" started Panacea, but before she could voise her protest, her body finally gave in and she passed out.

I had already seen it coming thanks to the Diagnostic spell and easily caught her, hefting the surprisingly light girl into my arms.

"I'll see if I can do something to help her," I said, "Do you have an empty room I can use?"

Dr Cox sighed and pointed at a nearby door.

"Thats empty," he said, "I'll call Glory Girl and get her to come pick her up."

I nodded and carried Panacea into the room as Cox walked away muttering about stubborn brats. I put Panacea on the bed and pulled out my wand, casting a Switching Spell to leave her in the Tshirt and leggings she had on under her robes. It was easier to work without all that heavy fabric in the way. With that done, I sent a locking and detection spell at the door before going to work.

Waterbending wasn't really suitable for this, although I could have used it to get rid of the gunk in her lungs, so I decided to go the way of Magic and started pulling potions out of my pouch. The first thing I did was banish a Pepper Up into her stomach and cast an Enervate, which caused Panacea to jerk awake with steam billowing out of her ears.

"Who, wha, where?!" she sputtered, jolting into a sitting position.

I caught her and gently forced her back down.

"No, your lying still," I said.

Panacea blinked, her eyes clearing, and frowned.

"Avatar? What are you doing here?" she asked, looking around the room, "Actually, what am I doing in here?"

"You just collapsed from exhaustion, so I need to make sure nothing's actually wrong with you before you go home and sleep," I said, "Its kinda my job as a Healer."

Panacea frowned.

"I'm fine," she said, "Now if you'll excuse me…"

She started to get up again, but I just pushed her down.

"No, your not going anywhere," I said, "Now lie still before I strap you to the bed."

A pair of shackles formed from ice beside me to highlight my threat. Panacea scowled, but lay still as I turned the ice back into water and pressed it against her head.

"I don't know why your doing this, I feel fine," she muttered.

"That would be because I gave you a little something a friend of mine gave me," I said, "Shes a Tinker who'd prefer to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, but is rather good at making medicines. The one I gave you will keep you on your feet for a couple of hours, but you'll crash spectacularly in about four hours."

Yeah, theres no way I'm letting the fact I was making the potions become common knowledge anytime soon.

Panacea's scowl deepened.

"You gave me untested Tinker drugs?!" she yelled.

"Of course not," I said, "They were tested extensively and my friend, who goes by Wiccan by the way, intends to have me approach the PRT about potentially marketing them. Anyway, your going to start choking in three, two, one…"

Panacea was about to say something, but was cut off as she started choking and coughed up a lump of yellow and black gink into a bucket I summoned from across the room.

"You really shouldn't be smoking," I said, putting the bucket aside, "You might not be at risk of getting cancer, but the tar doesn't do you any good."

"Um, thanks?" said Panacea, looking mildly disturbed as she accepted the glass of water I handed her.

"Welcome," I said, "Now, since you apparently can't be trusted to look after yourself, I'm going to do it for you. You need a solid week of proper nights sleep at least and your showing signs of not eating properly. To fix it, you get to be the first to be subjected to one of Wiccan's ragemes."

I pulled out two racks of potions, one purple and the other a rather toxic shade of green.

"The purple ones are Dreamless Sleep," I said, tapping the rack of viles, "Take one before bed and enjoy eight hours of pleasant sleep. The green ones are Nutritional potions that will help your body extract every bit of nutrition from food. Take one before dinner and make sure you do it quickly. They taste like absolute arse."

"Um, I'm not sure thats such a good idea," she said slowly.

"Well, if you don't take them I won't teach you a method of limiting your sleep time and resist mind altering effects," I said, "Speaking of which…"

I twirled my wand behind my back and hit the girl with a Finite Incantatem. According to the Diagnostic Spell, Vicky's aura was something similar to a mix of a Compulsion Charm and an Emotion affecting potion like Amortentia in spell form. It wasn't Magic of course, but it was close enough for the Counter Charm to work. Somehow. I wasn't going to question it.

Panacea jumped slightly when the spell hit her and looked around quizzically.

"Huh...that was odd," she said.

She shook her head.

"So, what were you saying about teaching me something?" she asked.

"Its a skill called Occlumency," I said, "Basically, it allows the user to take control of and organize their mind. It allows for better recall and as a side effect helps decrease the amount of sleep you need. I figure it could be helpful for you. Interested?"

"That sounds like a Thinker ability," said Amy.

I smiled and shook my head.

"Nope, entirely learnt skill," I said, "Some people will have an easier time and not everyone has the capability to learn it, but that would be the exception rather than the rule."

Amy hesitated for a moment.

"It'll probably make you resistant to your sisters Aura."

"I'll do it," she said.

"Great, in that case, come to this address tomorrow afternoon after you get of school," I said, pulling a card out of my pocket, "Oh, and since I know Glory Girl will be tagging along, let her know I'll teach her to. It'll hopefully teach her restraint if nothing else."

Amy took the card and frowned.

"This is in the Docks," she said.

"Yep, its where I've set up my hidden base," I said in a conspiratorial whisper.

Well, it was where I'd be setting up my base at least. I couldn't exactly keep operating out of home after all. I'd set up my Trunk in the warehouse under enough Wards to make Hogwarts jealous. I wouldn't put it under the Fidelius though since I might need to bring in someone I didn't want to key to the spell at some point and I'd also see about setting up a shop or something to sell my potions once they got the OK.

Panacea rolled her eyes and prodded me in the side. My armoured costume meant I didn't feel anything and just grinned back. Before Amy could do more, there was a knock at the door and I quickly removed the Locking spell and opened the door with an application of Metalbending, allowing a worried looking Glory Girl to float into the room. The moment she spotted her sister, she swooped across the room and grabbed her by the shoulders, checking her over as if she expected to find a gaping hole in her or something. While she was doing that, I shot a Diagnostic at her and found that she apparently had dormant Veela blood. How was that even possible? I frowned. This warranted investigation.

"Oh my gosh, are you alright Ames?" she gasped, "Dr Cox said you collapsed!"

"Don't worry Glory Girl, I've already made sure there's nothing wrong with her," I said, cutting across the babble as Amy started to go a funny shade of purple from how hard her sister was squeezing her, "Also, I don't think Panacea can breath."

"Huh?"

Vicky looked down to see Amy going limp in her arms, looking more than a little blue in the face. If I'd picked an Anime power, it wouldn't have surprised me to see her eyes as swirls and a ghost emerging from her mouth.

"Oh, sorry," said Vicky and let her sister go, allowing her to gasp for breath.

"Itsok," gasped Amy.

I rolled my eyes at their antics and cleared her throat.

"Just so you know, the method I used to treat her will wear off soon," I said, "Then she'll crash spectacularly and conk out for at least eight hours. Let your parents know so they don't panic if they can't wake her up."

Vicky shot me a strange look, but nodded.

"Alright, thanks for looking after her," she said.

I shrugged.

"Eh, you guys helped me the other day, so it was the least I could do," I said, "Still, I'd rather not have to do it again, so get some proper rest and food."

Amy rolled her eyes.

"Yeah yeah, I got it," she said.

"And don't forget these," I said, handing her a bag with the potions in it, "Dosage instructions are included. Now, off with you both."

"Thanks," muttered Amy, taking the bag and heading out the room with her sister on her heels, already asking about the bag.

With that done, I stood, stretched and headed for the door. Outside, I found Dr Cox leaning against the door.

"Thanks for that," he said, "I worry about Panacea. Shes always here, even more than the actual doctors. Its not healthy."

"I know," I said, "I'll do what I can to help her."

Cox nodded.

"So, do you want to do more work or head home?" he asked.

"Do you still need me?" I asked.

Cox looked thoughtful, before shaking his head.

"No, the rest we can treat on our own. So long as the Interns don't accidentally kill someone…"

He trailed off as a frantic looking young man came running down the hall.

"Oh, that can't be good," he muttered, "Whatever, you head home kid. Thanks for the help and feel free to stop by. I'll let Bob know your on the up and up."

I nodded and jogged off down the hall, waving over my shoulder as I went.

* * *

I left the hospital and paused just outside the doors to stretch.

"Urrg, right, next job, go set up my Trunk," I muttered and took off, heading in the direction of the Docks and the wearhouse I'd found in my extensive holdings.

It was currently empty, so I had a lot of work to do if I wanted to get it up to scratch. Oh well, at least it'd give me something to do!

 **And done. Sorry for the long wait, but, well, real lifes a bitch. I hate the Summer Season. Anyway, lets get started on my witty quips.**

 **First of all, all the characters at the Hospital will be based on the characters from Scrubs, with some minor alterations. Theres no real reason for this and it won't tie into anything other than a bit of comic relief, I just needed some characters and why not?**

 **I know Amy might seem a little to blase about accepting drugs from someone she just met, but shes currently a little out of it from exhaustion. They'll have a proper conversation about that in the not to distant future.**

 **Incidentally, anyone not familiar with my habit of screwing with my characters head figured out what I have planned for Amy yet?**

 **The idea of Vicky being part/full Veela is a concept I've been toying with for a while. Its mostly just to add to the world, but it will have some bearing on the future. For now I'll just say that Magic is not native to Bet.**

 **Yeah, hes keeping the fact hes a 'Tinker' to himself for now. Hes already a powerful Shaker/Blaster, no need to paint a bigger target on his back.**

 **I'm not entirely sure why I had Aisha approach him on the street, but it seems like something she'd do.**

 **Anyway, I'm done. Next time, lessons and possibly a confrontation. Depends on how far I get. Don't forget to review!**


	7. Chapter 7

A Bad Choice

When I filled out a CYOA out of boredom, I never expected a ROB to take that as an invitation and drop me in it. Oh god, I really should have picked something that made me harder to kill! To make matters worse, I wasn't just dropped in, oh no, now I have the god damn Nazi's chasing me for my powers!

 **And we're back! Nothing to say here, other than enjoy!**

Chapter 7

I was just putting the finishing touches to my new base by fixing a few leaks, watched by a rather large, shaggy wolfhound that had been sniffing around the area when I arrived and settled in to watch me for some odd reason, chewing on the chew toy I'd conjured to keep it occupied. I didn't mind its presence, although I wasn't entirely sure why it was sniffing around the Docks alone considering it looked well cared for.

What was I saying? Oh, right. I was just carving the last of the Runes into the Runestone that would be powering the Wards and was about to lower it into the deep pit I'd dug in the floor when my phone went off. I pulled it out and floated it next to my ear held in a bit of paper.

"Yello," I said.

"Um, hi, this is Avatar, right?" said a nervous sounding female voice.

"Speaking."

"Um, I'm the girl from the other night, with the bugs?"

"Still not got a name eh?" I asked with a slight smirk, "So, did you need something?"

"I...need some advice," she said, "And since your the only Cape I know how to get in contact with, I was hoping..."

"Say no more, I got it," I said, mind already at work, "Tell you what, I'm meeting some friends later on for a little training session that could benefit you as well. If you want, you can tag along and get advice from people who've been at this gig for way longer than me."

Both Taylor and Amy were in dire need of friends who understood them and this was an excellent way to go about it. Plus, for some reason, I loved that paring, so I'd take the chance to potentially play matchmaker if it turned out Taylor swung that way.

"I'm not sure thats…"

"Oh, don't worry, it'll be fine," I said, "Trust me, you like them and I'm pretty sure you'll make friends. If not, you still get some good advice and contacts in the Cape scene that could be handy later."

"I...alright," said Taylor, not sounding entirely sure about it.

Good god, I really needed to sort out that confidence problem.

"Great, I'll text you the location and time," I said, "Costume is optional."

"Um, alright," said Taylor, "See you then I guess."

She hung up and I sighed as I returned my phone to my pocket.

"That girl really needs to get out more," I said to the dog, "Hopefully meeting Vicky and Amy will help...why am I talking to a dog?"

The dog just panted and thumped his tail on the ground.

* * *

Amy wasn't really sure what she should be feeling right now. The day before she'd been so utterly exhausted that she'd gone right through exhaustion and out the other side which, combined with the energy surge from whatever it was Avatar had given her, had resulted in her head being more than a little fuzzy. She was grateful to the other Healer of course and knew that she needed the rest, but she could have done without falling asleep in her cereal she'd had when she got home. Still, other than nearly drowning, it had been one of the most restful nights she'd had in a while. The 'potions' he'd given her on the other hand were something of a sticking point. She wasn't stupid enough to let Carol find them, but she also wasn't sure if she should be taking them. After all, she'd met the Water user twice and that wasn't really enough to trust someone enough to happily drink anything they gave you. Technically, it wasn't enough to meet them in abandoned warehouses either, but she had some questions she wanted to ask him.

While he was healing her, Amy had got a good look at his biology and had quickly realized that something was very wrong. He didn't have a Corona pollentia. Not only that, but he had been lying when he's mentioned his Tinker friend. What that meant, she had no idea, but she intended to find out.

Plus, whatever he'd done had got rid of the endless guilty feeling she'd had for Vicky. Oh, she still found the girl to be ridiculously attractive, but the longing to be closer was gone and the affection she felt towards the blonde was now more sisterly than creepy stalker, so she had to thank him about that as well.

* * *

"Are you sure this is the place?" asked Victoria as she set her sister down on the cracked pavement outside of a warehouse in the docks.

The place was in surprisingly good condition and still bore the remains of a sign declaring that it belonged to Greengrass Enterprises, a shipping company that had gone under after the Tanker had been sank in the bay after being forced to pay out vast settlements due to being the ones who owned said tanker.

"Thats what the note says," said Amy as she walked up to the door and shoved it open with a loud squeal.

The two sisters stepped inside and looked around, their jaws dropping as they took in their surroundings. It looked like someone had taken the inside of a stately home, added a complicated looking chemistry lab with a lot of bubbling cauldrons that were giving off some very odd coloured smoke and sparks and then stuck the result inside a rundown wearhouse. The concrete floor was covered in thick rugs with various patterns and colours, all of which looked like you could sleep on them perfectly happily, while a brick fireplace was improbably against one wall with a few chairs and a coffee table around it. There were a few other sitting areas around the room, complete with bookshelves full of leather bound tomes, as well as what looked like a sparing area with articulated dummies, an area with a lot of comfortable mats that looked like it was used for yoga or something similar and what looked like a steamer trunk stood upright against one wall. The entire room was lit by an eclectic mix of fires from the cauldron and fireplace, lamps on tables and a lot of candles that were floating, unsuspended, above the girls heads, somehow not dripping wax everywhere.

"What is this stuff?" asked Vicky as she floated over to the lab and started examining the bubbling cauldrons.

The liquids inside ranged from what looked like perfectly normal water, other than the fact it was spitting purple sparks, what looked like slowly bubbling mud, a purple substance that was rippling and giving of faint steam that seemed to shape itself into abstract animal shapes as it rose and a cauldron full of liquid gold with drops jumping across the surface like goldfish. Curious, Vicky went to stick her fingers in the gold one.

"I would highly recommend that you don't do that," said a familiar voice, making both sisters jump and spin around to see Avatar emerging from the trunk.

The male Hero was wearing the bottoms of his costume, a white shirt and his mask, revealing that his hair was bright blonde. His hair was damp and he had a towel draped around his shoulders.

"What is this stuff?" asked Vicky.

"Well, that potion is half finished Felix Felicis, better known as Liquid Luck," said Avatar as he walked over, "In its current state, its a very powerful acid, so I wouldn't recommend you get any on you."

To demonstrate, he dipped a spoon in the fluid and Vicky's eyes went wide as it was dissolved with an angry hiss. She gulped.

"Um, thanks," she said weakly.

"Welcome," said Avatar.

"That stuff wouldn't happen to be like the stuff you gave me, would it?" asked Amy as she looked over at the blonde from where she'd been examining a number of rather decorative sticks that were displayed on the mantelpiece for...reasons.

Avatar glanced over at her and smiled.

"Oh, so you noticed that?" he asked.

Amy just fixed him with a Look. He didn't seem bothered, in fact, he just looked amused.

"Why'd you do it?" she asked.

"Do what?" asked Vicky, who was looking between the two in confusion.

"Tell me those medicines he gave me came from someone else."

Avatar sighed as he walked over to a large armchair and dropped into it.

"Amy, you know how rare Healers are," he said, "Powers are built for conflict, so any power that can heal does so as a side benefit. That makes them valuable enough that people would literally KILL for them. Or just try and kill the user so someone else can't get their hands on them. I'm pretty sure that at some point soon I'll be given an 'offer I can't refuse' by the Empire and possibly even the ABB if Lung decides getting a Healer is worth ignoring the fact I'm white. If people knew I was a Tinker as well...the result would be messy."

He grinned and summoned a ball of fire to his palm.

"Of course, any attempt to get me on their side will backfire horribly, but it would likely result in a lot of collateral damage and I'm not immune to a sniper bullet to the skull if they decide to just off me."

That certainly made a lot of sense to Amy. Shortly after she'd Triggered and first started her career as a Healer, there had been an incident when a would-be supervillain had attempted to kidnap her. It...had not ended well for him and he'd ended up with every limb broken, a concussion, all of his teeth knocked out and a lot of nasty burns in unpleasant places by the time New Wave was done with him and handed him over to the PRT. He'd been shipped off to the Birdcage, only to end up being tortured to death after he did something to annoy both Marquis and Glaistig Uaine. Quite how he'd managed that was anyone guess, but Amy certainly wasn't about to shed a tear over the bastards death.

The fire went out as Avatar closed his fist. Amy narrowed her eyes.

"So, your a Tinker/Shaker/Blaster?" she asked.

Avatars grin widened slightly.

"Nope, not in the slightest," he said, "I'm actually closer to a Thinker."

"Wait, how does that work?" asked Vicky, now looking really confused.

"Simple," said Avatar, "My powers aren't powers, their skills. If I wanted to, I could teach another person how to use the same skills."

"Actually, your 'powers' aren't powers at all," said Amy, "You're Not a Parahuman."

Vicky, who was about to say something, paused and shot her sister a disbelieving look.

"What do you mean?" she asked, "I mean, he obviously has powers!"

"But he doesn't have a Corona pollentia," said Amy, "I can't touch brains, but I can see them and Avatar completely lacks any indication that he can Trigger at all, let alone that he has powers."

She turned back to Avatar, who was now beaming for some reason.

"So, what are you?" she asked.

His massive grin widened as he flicked his wrist and a length of carved wood the shape of a lightning bolt appeared in his hand.

"I'm a Wizard," he said.

Vicky snorted.

"Yeah right, pull the…WHOA!"

The blonde let out a yelp as Avatar waved his apparent wand and a nearby dining chair table turned into a panther that immediately pounced on the girl and started licking her face. Amy went wided eyed as she gaped at the big cat that was making a complete mess of Vicky's hair and makeup, before turned her attention back on Avatar, who was sipping from a teacup he definitely didn't have a moment ago while a teaset hung in mid air beside him.

"Want a cup?" asked Avatar, his grin not fading.

"I…"

Before Amy could say anything, there was a knock at the door and Avatar waved his wand at it, making it open, revealing a Cape she didn't recognize in a gray bodysuit with armoured panels made of what looked like insect shells and a rather intimidating looking mask with large, yellow lenses that let her hair fall down her back.

"Come on in Bug!" called Avatar, "You're just in time…"

"HEY, GET THIS THING OFF ME!" yelled Vicky as she finally managed to shove the big cat off her, although it was clear that the amorous feline wasn't about to let up anytime soon.

"Oh, sorry," said Avatar, although the grin made it clear that he was anything but.

He waved his wand in Vicky's general direction and the panther turned back into a chair. The now bedraggled Brute slowly got to her feet, glowering at Avatar as her aura flared. Surprisingly, Avatar didn't seem to react to it, other than grin even wider. Amy was starting to think that he did actually have a power that allowed him to stretch his face further than should be possible because that grin was getting dangerously close to something out of a cartoon. Then, he twirled the wand around his fingers and another three armchairs appeared out of thin air, one red and white with a caduceus on the back, one white and gold with Glory Girls tiara symbol on the back and the last one black with a white spider web pattern.

"Huh, I'm getting better," he muttered, "Anyway, have a seat ladies."

Amy slowly did as she was told, prodding the chair a few times as if to make sure it was actually there, while her sister just floated and glared and the newcomer looked around in confusion and no small amount of awe, visible even through her costume. Whether that was due to the fact she was stood in an impossibly plush wearhouse or because two members of New Wave were also present was up for debate.

"Bug, quite floating and come in," said Avatar, pointing at the black seat, "No ones gonna bite and your letting the heat out."

The girl, Bug apparently, ducked her head in a way that Amy interpreted as embarrassed and shut the door as she slowly made her way deeper into the room.

"Whos the new girl?" asked Glory Girl.

"Someone so new she doesn't have a name yet," said Avatar, "Of course, shes also good enough that she took down Lung on her first night, so theres that."

Both Dallon girls eyes went wide.

"She beat LUNG!?" spluttered Vicky, "How?! Whats her power?"

"Arthropod control," said Avatar, "In other words, bugs. Apparently, even Lung can't keep fighting with enough Black Widow venom to drop an elephant in his system."

"Is that why I had to regrow Lungs genitals the other day?" asked Panacea, "And I thought Armsmaster took him down?"

Vicky went a rather funny colour at that and looked like she didn't know if she should laugh or back away slowly. Avatar scowled.

"Damn glory hound did nothing but tranq Lung," he said, "Thats probably why his balls dropped off. Then he managed to convince the new girl that beating Lung would paint a target on her back when it would do the exact opposite. I've got video evidence if you want it."

"Um, I'm good," said Amy.

Vicky shook herself off and floated over to Bug, who shifted uncomfortably as the Alexandria package stopped in front of her.

"You know, even I'd baulk at facing down Lung," she said, "You got guts new girl. I like that."

She grinned and held out a hand.

"I'm Glory Girl, but you can call me Vicky when not in costume."

Bug looked a little stumped, but took the offered hand and was immediately subjected to the patented Collateral Damage Barby Shoulder Dislocating Handshake, before being dragged over to where the Amy and Avatar were sat.

"And this is my best sister Amy," continued Vicky, slinging an arm around said sisters shoulders.

"I'm your only sister," said Amy, jabbing Vicky in the side.

"Exactly."

"Well, this is going well," said Avatar, "Can I get in on the action?"

The three girls turned to the only male in the room as he reached up and took his mask off. For a brief moment, their eyes refused to properly register his face, before something seemed to click into place and the Dallons once again found themselves stunned.

"I'm Theo Anders," said Theo, "Wizard, Hero and generally decent guy."

Bug tilted her head on one side.

"Wizard?" she asked.

Ava...Theo just grinned and handed her a kitten that had been a throw pillow a moment ago.

"How come she gets a kitten and I got a panther?!" demanded Vicky as Bug stared at the adorable ball of fluff as if she expected it to explode.

"Because a kitten wouldn't have held your attention nearly as well," said Theo with a massive grin.

"I'm more interested about why you Unmasked to us," said Amy.

"Largely because I trust the three of you," said Theo, leaning his cheek on his fist, "Plus, even if you wanted to, you couldn't tell anyone my identity. Magics great like that."

He turned to Bug, who was sitting frozen in her seat with the kitten pawing at her hands.

"I don't expect you to Unmask right now Bug," he said, "But I do hope that you eventually trust us to do so."

The girl nodded slowly, still not looking entirely comfortable.

He clapped his hands, making all three girls jump.

"Anyway, I do believe we've procrastinated enough, why don't we get to the meat of why I invited you here?" he said.

"Right, you said something about teaching us something?" asked Amy.

Theo grinned and nodded.

"Yep, Occlumency," he said, "The art of defending your mind from attack. I'm not sure if it can protect from all Master powers, but it works on Glory Girls aura and it has other benefits, like improved recall, better emotional control and will probably also make using your powers easier."

He waved his wand and old fashioned school desks appeared in front of the three girls, complete with inkwells, feather quills that were so ostentatious they looked like they came from a peacock and rolls of parchment. A moment later, he grinned under their glares and the old fashioned stationary turned into more modern stuff. Vicky just ratched up the glare. Theo just ignored her.

Instead, he sat back and steepled his fingers, only a long, white beard away from looking like a wise old mentor figure.

"The most basic exercise in Occlumency is the art of clearing ones mind," he began, "However, that is a brute force method and won't work for everyone. In fact, it would take a special kind of mind indeed to pull that off. Instead, its better to start with meditation and build on it from there…"

* * *

Despite her annoyance at her neighbours antics, Vicky soon found herself engrossed in his explanation, even taking notes as her sister and new friend did the same. After all, Theo had said that this could help her gain control and, as impulsive as she was, she knew she desperately needed it.

* * *

For Taylor, the idea of learning something new never failed to get her giddy. The endless abuse at school had dampened it somewhat, but it couldn't extinguish her love of learning new things. The fact it sounded like it would help her improve on her power usage certainly helped. It was almost enough to make her forget why she came in the first place, although not entirely. A big part of her was worried about how the two Heroes in the room would take her question about possibly infiltrating the Undersiders, which certainly wasn't helping her concentration. She just hoped she could get some good advice from them and maybe an autograph while she was at it.

* * *

I couldn't help but smirk as I guided the three girls through the basics of Occlumency. This was going much better than I expected, largely because neither of the Dallon sisters had flown of the handle at Taylors admittedly villainous looking costume. Now all I had to do was to get Taylor to trust us enough to Unmask and I'd have the makings of some actual progress. Certainly more so than what Dobby had managed.

Speaking of the House Elf, I had just finished my explanation when I felt a slight tugging on the bond between the two of us that indicated that he had something to talk to me about in private. Fortunately, we were at a point where I could leave the girls to it.

"Well, that wraps up my explanation," I said, "The rest is up to you until you can bring up your innitual barriers. For now, try meditating and I'll see where you get when your done."

I got to my feet.

"While your doing that, I'll go get some refreshments. Believe me, this stuff is exhausting."

I grinned and waved.

"Have fun," I said and headed for the Trunk, ignoring the two fingers Vicky sent my way.

Inside the Trunk, I quickly locked the door.

"Dobby?"

CRACK!

The little elf immediately responded and I frowned when I saw the state he was in. His eyes were red and it looked like he'd been crying.

"Dobby, whats wrong?" I asked.

Dobby sniffed.

"Dobby is a bad elf!" he said, "Dobby is unable to get Miss Canary out. Dragon lady keeps stopping Dobby from revealing nasty Taggs secrets!"

"Ah, don't even think about it," I said as Dobby reached for a nearby frying pan, "You've done your best, theres no reason to punish yourself. That said, I wasn't expecting Dragon to be a problem. Then again, if she was ordered to ensure this went down, she wouldn't have a choice. Hmm…"

This...could be a problem. House Elves were capable of doing just about anything to complete their Masters orders, but even they couldn't do everything. Case in point, Kreacher was unable to destroy the Locket. Dobby had been making use of Elf Magic to try and expose Tagg and the truth of the Canary Case online, but it sounded like Dragon, who was better at computers in every way imaginable since she was one, was stymying him at every turn. The big problem was that I had no doubt at all that, if she wasn't shackled like she was, she'd be helping Dobby. Unfortunately, Magic didn't give me any way to undo said shackles. To do that, I'd need to be able to gain administrative access to Dragons code and that was…

Suddenly, my mind screeched to a halt as I went back over that thought. Maybe...would that work? If it did, it would kill two birds with one stone and even if it didn't, it removed a massive threat to Dragons safety and the rest of the world by extension. Frankly, I needed to do it, even if I couldn't use the plan to get Dragon off Dobbys back.

"Dobby, I have new orders for you," I said, getting the Elfs attention, "And I don't think you''ll have any trouble with it."

My grin turned demonic.

"Find Saint and bring me Ascalon!"

 **Ohhh boy, this won't end well. So, anyone want to guess how most of the HP cast is coming to Bet yet?**

 **Oh and before I forget and get yelled at for it, the scene with the panther and kitten was inspired by a similar one from Harry Potter: Geth.**

 **Hmm, I wonder why the dog was hanging around? Or even why little miss Fairy Queen got involved in tearing Amy's would-be Kidnapper apart?**

 **Speaking of which, I don't think thats entirely unlikely to have happened. A Miracle Healer Triggers, even one closely associated with a known Hero Team and no idiot attempts to kidnap her? Yeah, a tad unlikely. Hell, if Coil had been around then, he probably would have made an attempt himself!**

 **I admit, I'm not totally pleased with this chapter, but it does the job. Next time, more bonding for our budding group of friends, a glimpse at whats going on over in the PRT and possibly a clue as to how Taylor has magic. Its...not for the reason you might think.**

 **On a completely unrelated note that I'm sure will have no bearing on the future at all, what Animagus forms do you think would most suit Amy and Taylor? And no, I don't think an insect form is particularly likely, regardless of her powers.**

 **Anyway, I'm done, so its time to sign out. Don't forget to leave a review!**


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